Stepfather Gets 25 Years to Life in Boy's Death

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A Buffalo father has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for beating his 10-year-old stepson to death with a rolling pin.

A jury last month convicted Ali-Mohamed Mohamud of second-degree murder. He was sentenced in state Supreme Court on Thursday.

Prosecutors say Mohamud shattered Abdifatah Mohamud's skull with nearly 70 blows from a rolling pin after gagging the boy with a sock and duct tape and binding his hands with an electrical cord.

The child's mother was at work at the time, cleaning offices in Buffalo.

Mohamud's lawyers claimed at his trial that he was just trying to get the child to do homework and didn't mean to kill him.