Ben Thompson
A man, who maintained that he didn't kill his daughter, was given the opportunity by a judge to pick his own sentence.
Christopher McNabb, was jailed in 2019 for the murder of his 15-day-old daughter, Caliyah, who was savagely beaten to death.
McNabb and his partner, Courtney Marie Bell, were under the influence of crystal meth at the time of the horrific attack.
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In the days after her death, the couple told police that she'd been abducted while they slept.
Young Caliyah's body was later discovered in a Nike backpack in October 2017 which the pair claimed had also been stolen.
McNabb and Bell had lived in a trailer park in Covington, Georgia, which is 40 miles south of Atlanta.
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In court, jurors heard that the family's home was filthy as the couple used drugs and were physically violent towards each other.
McNabb was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, murder in the second degree, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the first degree, cruelty to children in the second degree, and concealing the death of another.
Bell was convicted of second-degree murder, second-degree child cruelty, and contributing to the dependency of a minor.
She was handed a sentence of 30 years, the first 15 of which she would serve in confinement.
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McNabb maintained his innocence before the judge, as he said: "I would never do this. I'm innocent."
The judge then asked: "You claim you're innocent, so you tell me what sentence the man or woman that you claimed did this should receive."
McNabb replied: "If you ever find out who did this, they deserve to be under the jail," to which the judge replied: "So they should get the maximum sentence?"
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When McNabb agreed with that assessment, the judge delivered his verdict: "On the crime of malice murder, I sentence you to life in confinement without parole."
Describing the crime in court, the prosecutor dismissed any notion of the couple's innocence.
District Attorney Layla Zon said: "That child didn't do anything but need love, and her daddy killed her.
"All this fake crying and fake tears he did during the interviews about how much he loved his children and that he did in the courtroom are a joke.
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"She was a gift to Cortney Bell and Christopher McNabb.
"That child was doomed the moment they left that hospital. They took pure innocence and brought that child into a life of hell."