Saying he must follow the law, a judge sentenced Lionel Tate to life in prison for a murder he said was “cold, callous and indescribably cruel” and slammed the prosecutor for offering to seek clemency for a 14-year-old.
Following the ruling,he was sentenced to life for killing a 6-year-old girl by flinging her around a room so hard she suffered a fractured skull, punctured kidney, broken rib and other injuries. Tate said he was imitating professional wrestling moves making him the youngest American citizen ever to get the sentence.
Tate was left alone with Eunick,a six-year old girl belonging to his neighbour, who was being babysat by Tate’s mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. While the children were downstairs playing, Tate’s mother called to them to be quiet. Tate came up 45 minutes later to say that Eunick was not breathing. He stated that they were wrestling, he had her in a head lock and slammed the child’s head into the table.
CONVICTION
Tate was convicted of killing Eunick by stomping on her so forcefully that her liver was lacerated.[2] Her other injuries included a fractured skull, fractured rib and swollen brain. These injuries were compared to those she would have sustained by falling from a three-story building.”
The verdict was given and the judge ruled that he was to spend a 100 years in prison without parole,stating that he would have gotten the death sentence if not that he was under aged.
Tate has been serving his sentence since 1999 as lawyers try to get a reduced sentence for him not to waste his entire life behind bars.
To err is human, to forgive is divine…