DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) Wesley Mathews of Richardson has been sentenced to life in prison in the death of his 3-year-old adopted daughter Sherin.
Mathews, who pleaded guilty to ‘Injury to a Child by Omission’ before his Capital Murder trial began, claims Sherin choked on her milk and died in their home.
Jurors spent about three hours deliberating before handing down the unanimous sentence Wednesday.
Richardson Police found Sherin’s body in October 2017, two weeks after Mathews reported her missing. He initially told Police that Sherin disappeared on October 7, 2017 after he left her outside the family’s home around 3 a.m., as punishment for not drinking her milk. He then waited five hours to contact authorities.
According to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, Mathews agreed to the plea agreement late last year knowing the charge of injury to a child carried the same sentence as a murder conviction.
“Based on the facts of the case, this was the only viable, prosecutable offense,” said Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot. “Our Office presented a strong case with the evidence we had to make certain Mathews was sent to prison and to get justice for little Sherin.”
Lead prosecutor Jason Fine told jurors, “Sherin’s little body was so badly decomposed, due to the actions of this defendant, the medical examiner could not determine an official cause of death which could have dramatically changed the way we were able to prosecute this case.”
During cross examination of Wesley Mathews, Fine told the defendant, “You told investigators Sherin’s death was a mistake but by your own words, you caused the death of your daughter and put her lifeless body in a trash bag and disposed of her. I don’t call that a mistake, I call it murder.”
District Attorney Crimes Against Children Chief Sherre Thomas told jurors, “While multiple agencies were searching for this little girl for weeks, the defendant knew where she was the whole time and that she was rotting away in that culvert. He deserves the harshest punishment possible.”
The Richardson Police Department released the below statement following the sentencing:
The investigation surrounding the death of Sherin Mathews has weighed heavily on the members of our Department and our community. We feel justice has been served with today’s verdict of life in prison given to Wesley Mathews by a jury of his peers. We would like to thank the many law enforcement agencies and civilian partners for the resources and time spent on this case. We will always remember Sherin Mathews.
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