WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - A New Yorker who smothered his 7-year-old daughter with a pillow has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison during an emotional hearing in Westchester County Court.
Gabrielle White was killed in her New Rochelle home in 2017 by her father, Neil White, the day after her parents signed their divorce papers. The family’s nanny found Neil White bleeding from his wrists from self-inflicted cuts. She called police who discovered the young girl dead in her bedroom.
Michelle Hord carried her daughter’s doll as she went to the podium Thursday for her victim impact statement in which she described the two years since her child’s death as “a razor-blade cut of trauma, memory, pain, confusion, betrayal and disbelief.”
The Journal News said Hord was supported by about 50 friends and relatives, many wearing buttons with Gabrielle’s picture.
“Neil you chose to murder Gabrielle, you did it with steel in you veins,” Hord said. “Your version of love suffocated everything that was ever good, righteous, or possible around you.”
Hord said White “chose to sell his soul and cowardly opt out of humanity.” She said White had taught Gabrielle an expression: “What is Daddy’s number one job? To protect me.”
“Domestic violence is insidious. How a parent can take out his anger and disappointment in life by killing his child in incomprehensible,” Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino Jr. said in a statement. “Neil White will have a long time in prison to think about what he has done. Justice was served.”
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This story has been corrected to show the child’s mother’s name is Michelle Hord, not Michelle Hoard, based on updated information from authorities.
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Information from: The Journal News, http://www.lohud.com
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