KATELYNN STINNETT - 2 yo - (2008) Lexington KY

Updated: 1:42 PM Nov 4, 2011
Man receives life in prison for killing toddler
Brian Crabtree admitted to killing 2-year-old Katelynn Stinnett in Lexington.

A Lexington man will spend the rest of for killing a toddler.

Brian Crabtree pleaded guilty to murdering 2-year-old Katelynn Stinnett, while babysitting the girl in 2008.


A Fayette County judge gave Crabtree a life sentence, without the possibility of parole.

Katelynn's mother says that punishment isn't enough.

"She was such a beautiful little girl, that guy took her life, he can't get the death penalty but I wish he could," Angela Coleman, Katelynn's mother, said. "He gets to live his life, she doesn't get to live hers."

Police say Crabtree was babysitting the girl and her brother in 2008 when the rape and murder happened.

He pleaded guilty to rape, murder, and sodomy. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors recommended life without parole, a recommendation the judge followed.

"I wish he would just give an apology, just something," Coleman said.

Coleman says Katelynn's murder has left a hole in her family, but she takes some comfort knowing part of her daughter still lives on.

"I donated her organs, she saved two little kids life so it's a bad thing for me, but she saved two kids," Coleman said.

If this case had gone to a jury, the death penalty would have been one option that would have been presented to jurors.


http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/133245578.html