Father Gets 40 Years for Killing Girl
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DICKINSON, N.D. — A man who confessed on the Internet to killing his daughter by setting their house on fire was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday by a judge who said the man broke the most basic law of nature.
“Living creatures . . . protect their young,” Southwest District Judge Maurice Hunke told Larry Froistad Jr. “You chose to cause the death of the most vulnerable victim there could be: a child, your child.”
Froistad pleaded guilty in August to killing his daughter, Amanda, 5, in a 1995 house fire in Bowman. Under an agreement with prosecutors, Hunke suspended 10 years of Froistad’s sentence. He will be eligible for parole after 25 1/2 years.
Despite his earlier guilty plea, Froistad told the judge Thursday he did not kill his daughter and suggested his online confession was the result of a combination of drugs and depression.
Police in San Diego arrested Froistad at his home there in March. In a computer e-mail message, Froistad admitted killing his daughter and molesting her.
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