Wesley Mathews Avoids Capital Murder Trial

The capital murder trial of Wesley Mathews took a turn before it began on Monday. It seems that he has accepted a plea deal. He will plead guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child by omission. The lesser charge comes with a lighter sentence.

He was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole as he was charged with capital murder of a person under the age of 10 in the death of his 3-year-old special needs adoptive daughter back in October 2017.

With this charge of first-degree injury to a child by omission, he faces between 5 years to life with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.

In October of 2017, news of Sherin Mathews' disappearance prompted a statewide AMBER Alert before her body was discovered near the family's home. Her adopted father at first told police he'd sent her outside to stand by a tree as punishment for not finishing her milk, after which she vanished. He later said he took the child to his garage to help her finish the milk and she choked and died.

Authorities later said the child had been abused and malnourished.