CALIFORNIA — A Newhall man was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison for killing his 19-day-old daughter, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Deputy District Attorney Julie Kramer said Matthew Brendan Warner, 30, entered a no contest plea to one count of first-degree murder and admitted a prior strike conviction on Sept. 2.
Before sentencing the defendant, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Walgren of the San Fernando Branch heard victim impact statements from the infant’s mother and grandmother.
The defendant killed Ellorah Rose Warner at their home in Newhall while the baby’s mother was at work on Jan. 23, the prosecutor said. Matthew Warner then claimed the newborn had been kidnapped and a search began to find her, the prosecutor added.
Warner eventually led authorities to the victim’s body which he had hidden in the cab of a truck parked in a nearby parking lot.
Warner was charged with murder, assault on a child causing death, torture, oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years or younger, and aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
