A Florida judge sentenced a 14-year-old boy to life in prison today for the murder two years earlier of a 6-year-old girl, rejecting the defense's request for a retrial or a reduction in the verdict that would have meant a lesser sentence.
In a case that has stirred controversy over what punishment a person so young should face, Broward County Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus ordered Lionel Tate to serve the state's mandatory sentence for a first-degree murder - life in prison without parole.
Tate was tried and convicted by a Broward County jury in January in the July 28, 1999, death of playmate Tiffany Eunick.
Although Tate was only 12 years old at the time of Eunick's death, he was tried as an adult, since in Florida juveniles charged with serious crimes may be prosecuted as adults.
The defense said the girl died accidentally while Tate was rough-house wrestling with her. But the prosecution said the injuries she suffered were far too severe for this to have been the case.
The jury agreed in its conviction and so did Lazarus in his sentencing statement. "The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous," the judge said.
Lazarus had the option of reducing the verdict to second-degree murder or manslaughter, which would carry a lesser sentence, or ordering a retrial. But he rejected both in a strongly worded sentencing statement.
Tate, a heavyset boy with a round face, was in court for the sentencing, dressed in beige jail clothes. He listened silently to the verdict before being escorted from the court room.