A Michigan man admitted to killing his 5-year-old stepdaughter because she said she was hungry.
Thomas McClellan had already admitted in an interview with police to stabbing 5-year-old Luna Younger to death when Lansing, Michigan, detective Charles Buckland asked him why.
“What was so awful about Luna today that you had to kill her?” Buckland asked McClellan.
“I told her it wasn’t dinner time,” McClellan said, Lansing State Journal reported. He went on to explain that Luna went to his room to tell him that he was hungry, to which he responded by trying to get her to leave. She proceeded to sit down on the floor, and McClellan pushed her towards the door.
“It tipped me over the edge,” he said. “She gave me more attitude.”
McClellan picked the girl up by the shoulder and put her down on the floor before sitting on top of her and stabbing her in the chest several times.
“What’d she do when you stabbed her?” Buckland asked.
“She cried, and she coughed,” he responded. “Not very long.”
In court, McClellan’s attorney attempted to have first-degree child abuse charges dropped, which would have left McClellan still facing a sentence for second-degree murder. However, McClellan was ultimately convicted of all charges. His sentencing date is August 23.
“If you look at the circumstances surrounding this killing and ask: ‘When did the defendant premeditate, when did he reflect, when did he have time to think twice?’ Every step of the way,” Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Allen argued in court, WSYM reported. “Because before he knocked to the ground a 40-pound 5-year-old girl, he had time to think.”
Many readers called for McClellan to be punished severely for the crime.
“This is just horrible!! This beautiful little girl was a typical five year old. She was hungry so she asked for food. This idiot got mad so he killed her. I hope the people in prison have a little surprise for him. Let the prisoners take care of him. I hope they beat him to a pulp and let him lay there in pain and misery,” one Mad World News reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.
“This animal should be trapped down to a table and stabbed as many times he stab that little girl then covered up and set on fire hopefully he would still be alive to feel the heat of the fire,” another wrote. “The bastard don’t need to live.”
“He should go to prison for life and never be around kids again.this was premeditated because of how he despised of the body and all. A 5 year old will aggrivate but the parent or stepparent has to be able to handle it.plain and simple.i had 3 and I didn’t hurt one,” another added.