A Richardson father convicted in the death of his adopted 3-year-old daughter has been moved to state prison, Dallas County Sheriff officials say.
Wesley Mathews, 39, was transferred from Dallas County jail to state prison around 12:58 a.m. Thursday.
In June, Mathews pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child by omission. He was originally charged with capital murder.
A Dallas County jury heard the case, and Mathews was sentenced to life in prison in Sherin's death.
Mathews has since filed an appeal in the case asking for a new sentencing trial. His attorney alleges photos of Sherin's body were "prejudicial."
“Jurors expressed visible emotion when shown the exhibits,” defense attorney Brook Busbee writes in the appeal.
The appeal also claims that evidence of prior injuries on Sherin's body "prejudiced the jury." The court filing says those injuries can't be linked to Mathews.
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The father had reported Sherin missing after he put her outside Oct. 7, 2017, because she wouldn't drink her milk. Her badly decomposed body was found 15 days later in a culvert.
Prosecutors argued Mathews hid his crime, making it impossible to determine exactly what happened to the girl because of how badly decomposed her body was.
Mathews testified that his daughter choked on her milk and that he wrapped her body in a trash bag because he wanted "to do something nice" for her.
Sherin's adoptive mother, Sini Mathews, was also criminally charged after the child's body was found, but that case was later dismissed after the Dallas County District Attorney said there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
