Indian-American adoptive father of Sherin Mathews challenges life term, seeks new trial

The Indian-American foster father of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews, sentenced to life after the toddler was found dead in a culvert in 2017, has filed a motion for a new trial, US media reported, less than a month after he said he would accept any punishment jurors chose.

In a case that attracted much international attention, Wesley Mathews, 39, pleaded guilty on June 24 to a lesser charge of injury to a child in Sherin's tragic death.

He was originally charged with capital murder by authorities in the US state of Texas after they discovered Sherin's highly decomposed body after a massive search that lasted 15 days.

Mathews was sentenced to life in prison on June 26 in the death of Sherin has appealed the sentence and his attorney also filed a motion for a new trial, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

Had Mathews' been found guilty of capital murder he would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If the motion for a new trial is not granted, Mathews would be in his late 60s by the time he is able to potentially be released on parole.

Mathews and his wife Sini Mathews, both hailing from Kerala, adopted Sherin from an orphanage in Bihar's Nalanda district in 2016.

In a motion for a new trial, Wesley's appeal attorney, Brook Busbee, states that Mathews should be granted a new trial because the "photographs of the remains of the decedent, both where her body was discovered and in the autopsy suite" were so prejudicial as to deny Mathews a fair trial.

At least two jurors were visibly affected when shown the graphic images, NBC News reported.

The images were not shown to the audience in the courtroom.

Busbee also stated that jurors were shown evidence that Sherin suffered "fractures from before she died. There was no evidence" that linked Mathews to the injuries and "introduction of that evidence unfairly prejudiced the jury."