MILWAUKEE – For his role in the killing of five-year-old Prince McCree, 27-year-old David Pietura was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday afternoon.
“He was always nice to my baby. My baby loved him. To know all this happened. I don’t know how he could sit here and say he loved my son, no he didn’t,” Prince’s mother Jordan Barger said in a victim impact statement.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jean Marie Kies handed down the maximum sentence after hearing graphic descriptions of the crime from prosecutors and emotional testimony from McCree’s family.
“The community needs to be protected from you and from your actions,” Kies said moments before announcing the sentence.
Prosecutors said that McCree was beaten to death in his house by Pietura and 16-year-old Erik Mendoza and left in a dumpster near 55th and Vliet last October.
Pietura pleaded guilty to the charge of first-degree intentional homicide in June. As part of a plea deal, charges of child neglect and hiding a corpse were dismissed.
Mendoza still faces multiple felony charges connected to McCree’s death. He will be back in court in August.
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