Tayuan Chism gets 55 years in prison

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A 19-year-old man who pleaded guilty to beating his girlfriend's 15-month-old daughter to death with a belt has been sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Marion County Judge Kurt Eisgruber sentenced Tayuan Chism on Thursday, 13 days after he pleaded guilty in the March 2009 death of Lillianna Goodmann. Eisgruber suspended 10 years of Chism's 65-year sentence, the maximum for murder.

Prosecutors said the Indianapolis man beat Lillianna while her mother stood by in an apartment. Two people elsewhere in the apartment took the toddler to a hospital, where she died two days later.

Chism said in a letter to the judge that he didn't recall the incident because he was intoxicated and under the influence of drugs.

A defense attorney asked that Chism receive mental health treatment in prison.