Sentencing: Toddler's killer gets 25 years to life

Earlier this month Anthony Jerome Hall Jr., a 23-year-old black man, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the beating death of Nathan Coleman, a 1-year-old black boy, whose body was found in a trash bin in Long Beach.

Hall was sentenced April 12, two months after jurors found him guilty of one count of second-degree murder and one count of assault on a child causing death. Nathan was the son of Hall's girlfriend.

Nathan's badly beaten, lifeless body was found Sept. 19, 2008, by a person looking in the trash bin for recyclables.

The toddler suffered at least 11 hard blows to the body, including broken ribs and a severe skull fracture, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Authorities believe Hall beat the child in downtown Los Angeles, put his body in a trash bag and then took public transportation to Long Beach, where he dumped Nathan in the trash.

Before Nathan's body was found, his mother reported him missing. Hall told her that Nathan had been kidnapped while under his watch. Hall scratched his own arms and cut his shirt to back up his story, prosecutors said.

Authorities arrested Hall shortly after Nathan's body was found.

Although Hall was recorded by police admitting to beating Nathan, at trial he said his girlfriend killed her son.

--Sarah Ardalani