“My daughter is dead.”

No less than three times, Anthony Pasquale, Autumn’s father, repeated the words to Superior Court Judge Walter Marshall Jr. Thursday morning before the judge sentenced Justin Robinson to 17 years in state prison for the girl’s murder.

“My daughter is dead,” said Anthony, the last to speak and face the 16-year-old who admitted last month and pleaded guilty to murdering the 12-year-old girl. “I believe he doesn’t deserve a life sentence. He doesn’t deserve to live.”

Robinson, in an untucked white dress shirt buttoned up to the neck, sat still in the courtroom, flanked by his attorneys who would whisper instructions and other bits of information to the boy throughout the sentencing. Expressionless, he listened to tearful statements from nine of Autumn’s family members — her mother, father, step-father, step-sister and grandparents.

“No punishment exists for the defendant that can mend my broken heart,” cried Autumn’s mother, Jennifer Cornwell.

A 17-year prison sentence is a “gracious gift” Robinson “does not deserve,” Cornwell said.

“Do not give him the opportunity to be a repeat offender,” pleaded Mary Pasquale, the girl’s grandmother — and Robinson’s special education teacher at Clayton High School.

Robinson, a classmate of Autumn and her siblings, stood and spoke only to make a very short statement.

“I’m sorry and I never meant for any of this to happen. It was all a big mistake.”

(LEFT) Image of Donte Robinson, 17, taken from Twitter. (RIGHT) Image of Justin Robinson, 15, taken from Facebook. Both boys have been charged in the murder of Autumn Pasquale in Clayton, NJ.

Robinson was 15 in October when he and his brother Donte, then 17, were arrested and charged with Autumn’s murder. The Clayton brothers have been housed at the Camden County Youth Facility in the 11 months since the murder and arrest. Donte’s charges are still pending in juvenile court.

Last month, however, Justin Robinson reached a plea agreement with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. He admitted sole responsibility for luring the Clayton middle schooler to his East Clayton Avenue home, choking her to death and dumping her body in a blue recycling bin on an abandoned property next door. Her remains were discovered by police two days after she was strangled in the Robinsons' basement.

The plea agreement, a guilty plea to aggravated manslaughter, included a voluntary move to adult court. The agreement carries a 17-year prison term, which Marshall accepted Thursday despite pleas from community members who signed a petition and demonstrated on the courthouse grounds during the sentencing.

Robinson’s attorneys — Janine Faulkner, a public defender — made a last ditch argument against adding time to the sentence. Aggravated manslaughter, a first-degree crime, has a range of 10 to 30 years in prison, and falls under the No Early Release Act.

He would be eligible for parole after serving 14.5 years in state prison. Marshall recommended his sentence begin in a youth facility.

“Justin has remorse,” Faulkner told the judge, noting her teenage client’s diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder, low IQ, intellectual disabilities and attention deficit disorder. “With his disabilities (and) his age, adding to his sentence would not add to any special deterrence.”

Faulkner revealed Robinson’s history of abuse at the hands of his father, and the teen having seen his father strangle his mother.

“He’s not a monster,” Robinson’s mother Anita Saunders told the court, as Anthony Pasquale, his attorney and long-time family friend Barb Defrance left the courtroom in protest. “He is now a 16-year-old with a physical deformity ... nobody knows what happened the day of the accident ... I know he is filled with remorse.”

Saunders added that she believed the actions of Oct. 20, the day Autumn died, have been “mischaracterized.”

“She didn’t die of a disease, a car accident, or in a random shooting,” Autumn’s mother cried out during her statements to the judge.

Her daughter was killed “literally at the hands of the defendant.”

“My life is forever altered by the defendant’s actions ... nothing in life can prepare anyone for this,” Cornwell said. “I hope the defendant is haunted of her memory for the rest of his life.”

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Contact staff writer Carly Q. Romalino at 856-686-3655 or cromalino@southjerseymedia.com