The California City man who admitted beating his girlfriend’s two-year-old son to death has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Mathew Berry originally told investigators little Pharaoh Van Vector was injured in an off-roading accident in 2013, but an autopsy later revealed the boy had bruises all over his body that was not consistent with a traffic accident.

Prosecutors made a deal with Berry, where he pleaded no contest to first-degree murder, so the victim’s family wouldn’t have to sit through a trial.

Kelli Pierce