Updated at 6 p.m.: Adds reaction to the sentence.

A Richardson father was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for dumping the body of his adopted 3-year-old daughter in a culvert after he says she choked to death on milk.

"This whole thing was about anger and frustration over milk," lead prosecutor Jason Fine said, arguing that Wesley Mathews had been force-feeding the girl.

Jurors spent about three hours deliberating the punishment for Mathews, who this week pleaded guilty to injury to a child in the October 2017 death of Sherin Mathews.

Wesley Mathews pleaded guilty in the October 2017 death of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews, his adopted daughter.

They were unanimous in their decision, which elicited little reaction from the 39-year-old defendant. Mathews stared straight ahead as the verdict was read and did not look at jurors.

His wife, Sini Mathews, quickly left the courthouse without commenting on the sentence. Originally charged with child abandonment, the registered nurse had her case dismissed earlier this year by prosecutors who said they couldn't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Before his capital murder trial was to begin Monday, Mathews pleaded guilty to a lesser charge: injury to a child by omission. On Wednesday, he said he accepted whatever decision the jury came to for his punishment, even if it were a life sentence.

"I'm more than happy to take it," he said Wednesday morning.

Life is precisely what prosecutors advocated for in closing arguments. They argued that Mathews built a public persona of a good father, but ultimately failed to protect Sherin.

Fine accused Mathews of killing the girl and said the father acted out of anger because she wouldn't finish the milk a doctor had prescribed for her nutrition. The father wanted to exert power over the girl, Fine said.

"He is a liar," Fine said. "He had to be in control."

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Rafael De La Garza, Mathews' attorney, defended his client against the murder accusation. He argued prosecutors couldn't prove Mathews committed murder, otherwise he would have stood trial on that charge.

De La Garza contends that, by pleading guilty, Mathews was accepting responsibility for Sherin's death, the result of his inaction when the child began to choke. The attorney fought against the perception that Mathews didn't care about Sherin, and said his client will live with the consequences of her death for the rest of his life.

"You can see from the videos, you can see from the photos that they loved and adored Sherin," De La Garza told the jury.

Photos and home videos played for the jury during the trial weren't enough for Fine, however. He argued that Mathews showed his true colors with his behavior after Sherin's death.

"Great guys and great dads, they don't stick their daughters in trash bags and dump them in sewage drains," Fine said.

A day before prosecutors and the defense rested their case Wednesday, Mathews took the witness stand Tuesday to describe the night the toddler died.

He told jurors that Sherin choked while drinking milk in the family's garage but he didn't call for emergency help or alert his wife — a registered nurse — because he was scared Child Protective Services would get involved.

Crippled by fear, Mathews testified, he put the girl's body in a culvert, where it was found about two weeks later.

"I could not absorb what had happened. I could not believe that in a very quick time my child had gone from me," Mathews said Tuesday. "I was really, really paralyzed."

Mathews took the witness stand again Wednesday morning, when Fine grilled him on multiple inconsistencies between the account he told police and his testimony Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Mathews told the jury he brought the girl into the garage to see a new lawnmower to calm her down so she could drink her milk, and that he had played piano to pass the time — two things Fine said he never told police. Mathews also testified that he gave Sherin CPR, which Fine said also deviated from what he told police.

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Fine highlighted testimony from doctors who said Sherin suffered multiple broken bones within five months under Mathews' care after he adopted the child from India in 2016. He denied any knowledge of the injuries, despite the doctors' testimony.

The prosecutor also criticized Mathews' claim that Sherin's body stiffened within minutes after her death. A medical examiner testified Tuesday that rigor mortis, the process in which muscles and joints harden after death, takes hours to happen.

"I don't know what the medical examiner bases her findings on," Mathews said.

Fine replied: "Probably her years of study" and experience as a medical examiner.

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Mathews' sentence brings the tragedy to a close for now. In a statement, Richardson police said the department feels "justice has been served" by the sentence.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot addressed reporters after the trial. He said he was pleased with the outcome of the case, adding that additional charges won't be brought against Sini Mathews at this time.

"As far as we know, we are done," Creuzot said.

Police charged Sini Mathews with child abandonment after it was reported that she and her husband left Sherin at home alone while they ate dinner at a restaurant with their biological daughter. Fine told reporters that Wesley Mathews is the source of that claim, which couldn't be corroborated, so the charge was dismissed.

Fine, who was pleased by the sentence, left the door open for further legal action against Sini Mathews if they find evidence connecting her to Sherin's death.

"What my thoughts are and what my opinions are, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. I don't have the evidence," he said. "If somebody brings us evidence, we will charge her. And if we can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, we'll prosecute her. Absolutely."