A Texas man accepted a plea deal on Friday for abducting and killing an 11-year-old girl last year.
KPRC reported that Don McDougal was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to two counts of capital murder for Audrii Cunningham’s slaying. Cunningham was reported missing in February 2024, after McDougal failed to drop her off at her bus stop.
McDougal was a friend of Cunningham’s father who lived in a trailer behind their Livingston home. Cunningham’s disappearance sparked an AMBER Alert which ended five days later when her body was discovered in the Trinity River, not far from where her backpack was found.
READ: Cause of Death Revealed for Abducted 11-Year-Old Found in River
An autopsy determined Cunningham died from homicidal violence and blunt-force head trauma.
According to KRIV, Polk County prosecutors said they could not seek the death penalty in this case due to McDougal’s developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Even though McDougal had a prior conviction for enticing a child, a plea deal spared him from being a registered sex offender.
“You took away the life of our little angel. Your punishment in this life will never fit the crime. Nothing will ever bring her back, and that’s your fault,” Cunningham’s grandmother told McDougal at Friday’s sentencing hearing, per KPRC.
“May you rot in hell.”
[Feature Photo: Shutterstock]
