Sherin case: Foster father pleads guilty to lesser charge

Houston, June 25

The Indian-American father accused of killing his three-year-old adopted daughter Sherin Mathews and hiding her body in a culvert in suburban Dallas has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, according to media reports.

Wesley Mathews, 39, pleaded guilty to injury to a child by omission even before his capital murder trial opened at a Dallas district court on Monday. The lesser charge comes with a lighter possible sentence.

Mathews had been charged with capital murder of a person under the age of 10 in the death of his special needs adoptive daughter, Sherin, in October 2017.

If convicted, Mathews faced life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now, with the charge of first-degree injury to a child by omission, Mathews could get probation or face prison and life with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years, nbcdfw.com reported.

If he had been found guilty of capital murder, Mathews would have faced an automatic life sentence without parole for the minor Indian girl's tragic death in October 2017, an incident that attracted much international attention.

Mathews, and his wife Sini, both from Kerala, adopted Sherin from an orphanage in Bihar. Sini, registered nurse, was initially charged with child endangerment. — PTI