Man jailed for life after killing little girl, 3, who had just wondered into his yard to play in pool
- The man accused of the murder of 3-year-old Breeann Rodriguez pleaded guilty on Monday in court in Missouri
- Morgan pleaded guilty to first degree murder, child kidnapping, and armed criminal action
- He was sentenced to life without parole for the murder, life for the kidnapping and 10 years for the armed criminal action charge
- The sentences will run concurrently
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Murderer: Shawn Morgan of Senath pleaded guilty Monday to the first-degree murder of three-year-old Breeann Rodriguez in August 2011
A southeast Missouri man was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole for abducting and killing his 3-year-old neighbor girl in 2011.
Shawn Morgan, of Senath, was handed his sentenced after pleading guilty to first-degree murder, armed criminal action and child kidnapping. He had previously been scheduled to go to trial in August.
Breeann Rodriguez went missing August 6, 2011, while riding a small pink bicycle with training wheels near her home.
Her disappearance set off a frantic search. Residents of Senath, a town of 1,600 residents near the Arkansas border, joined the FBI, Missouri State Highway Patrol and local police in the search.
Her body was found on the banks of a drainage ditch 10 days later, about eight miles outside of the small community.
Morgan was arrested three days before the body was found. According to a probable cause statement, he told police he suffocated the girl with a white plastic trash bag after finding her on the ladder of his above-ground backyard swimming pool.
He said he put the body in the trash bag, drove to a floodway outside of town and threw the bag over a railing into the ditch.
Tragedy: Breeann Rodriguez went missing on Aug. 6, 2011, while riding a small pink bicycle with training wheels near her home
Murderer: Shawn Morgan will spend the rest of his life in jail for the murder of Breeann Rodriguez
He also told police that he went home and dismantled the girl's bike, which he dumped in the same area where he left the body.
'I'm pleased to have this resolved,' Dunklin County prosecutor Stephen Sokoloff told the Daily Dunklin Democrat newspaper in Kennett, Missouri.
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Share'I know the Rodriguez family is. That was a big factor in this.'
The training wheels of little Breeann's bike were discovered near to her body.
Crime scene: This is Morgan's home in the quiet Missouri town of Senath
A Missouri State Highway Patrol officer searching by boat found her body near the Floodway Ditches, about eight miles southeast of the girl's family's home.
Breeann was last seen riding her bike with her five-year-old brother. He ran inside to get a drink, and when he returned his sister had disappeared.
Billboards with her picture went up in Missouri and Arkansas with an announcement of a $45,000 reward -- $25,000 from the FBI and $20,000 from the Senath Marshal's Office -- for the arrest and prosecution of whoever is responsible.
He told the agent that it 'felt like it took an hour for the girl to die,' according to the statement. He did not say why he killed the child.
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