A Texas man will spend the rest of his life in prison for beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter to death after the little girl put her shoes on the wrong feet.
Jadin Nunez, 27, was sentenced in Bell County last week after a jury found him guilty of murdering Shannah McAlpine back in 2019, the Killeen Daily Herald reports.
Prosecutors said police found the little girl unresponsive and covered in bruises when they were called to the home where she lived with Nunez and her mother, Ashley Marie McAlpine, in September 2019.
Nunez started beating Shannah when she put her shoes on the wrong feet as they were getting ready to go a store to pick up supplies for her birthday party, authorities said.
He struck the girl across the face before holding her in the air and punching her in the stomach three times.
Shannah’s mother told investigators she called 911 hours later after she found her daughter’s stomach “swollen and hot.”
McAlpine said she had tried to put the girl in the shower to cool her down, but she was unable to stand on her own and was having trouble breathing.
The little girl died of blunt force trauma to her stomach, according to her autopsy.
Nunez was arrested two days after the little girl’s death.
McAlpine was charged in December last year with injury to a child after authorities said she allegedly failed to stop Nunez from beating her child.
She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face court on Friday.