Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The man beat his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter after she ate his breakfast sausages.
©Associated Press
October 8, 2002
MIAMI -- A man was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted Monday of fatally beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter for eating his breakfast sausages.
Juvon Pickett, 22, was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for the Sept. 5, 1998, beating of Ashley Smithson, who was taken off life support a month after she was beaten.
Circuit Judge Manuel Crespo sentenced Pickett to a mandatory life sentence without parole shortly after the verdict. State prosecutors had declined to seek the death penalty.
Pickett showed little emotion after the verdict. The jury deliberated eight hours over two days.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented Pickett's taped confession to police. Pecynthia Bradley, 27, the girl's mother, testified against him.
Bradley pleaded guilty to manslaughter last year for her role in the beating and was sentenced to 111/2 years in prison. A first-degree murder charge against her was dropped.
Pickett slammed young Ashley Smithson's head against a wall and a refrigerator, causing massive head injuries and a lacerated liver, after Ashley ate a package of sausages meant for him, according to police.
Pickett also pressed his fist against Ashley's stomach, trying to get her to throw up the sausages, as Bradley stood by and watched, prosecutors said.
Ashley died Oct. 4, 1998, when her life support was disconnected at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Diane Smithson, the girl's aunt, was by Ashley's side in the hospital and sat in court for the whole trial.
"This over a breakfast sausage? Was it worth it? No," Smithson said.
Pickett's attorneys would not comment after the verdict. Prosecutor Sally Weintraub said simply: "Justice was served."
Crespo set a Dec. 9 date for sentencing on the child abuse conviction.