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Anthony Bush Sentenced To Prison After 11-Year-Old's Beating Death

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Anthony Bush was sentenced to 23-and-a-half to 47 years for the beating death of 11 year old Donovan McKee.

Judge Donna Jo McDaniel told Bush, "You inflicted a lifetime of hell in a few hours when you beat that child."

Bush was convicted of third degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

Before sentencing, the victim's aunt, Crystal McKee, told the judge she was shut out of her sister Cynthia and Bush's home life, although she suspected something was wrong.

She described what it was like going to the hospital after the beating and literally being the only one to sit with the young victim who lay there dying.

"I cried and I prayed," she testified. "When we took the body to the undertaker it took him eight hours to make the body presentable. At one point you could still see the scarring on his hands from the beating, so we pulled the blanket up over his hands in the casket."

After the hearing, McKee told reporters this verdict gives her closure. She has custody of Donovan's surviving brother Vincere, who lived in the same home, is now 6 years old, and seems to be adjusting remarkably well.

"He gets straight A's and has a high IQ," she said.

Judge McDaniel declined the prosecution's request to impose a no contact order on Bush regarding the surviving child, but said McKee could decide whether the child should ever have contact with his surviving son.

"He doesn't ask about him, he's doing fine without him in his life," said McKee. "My only regret is that he didn't get life in prison for first degree."

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