HERNANDO, Miss. - A man convicted of manslaughter for pulling the life jacket off a 7-year-old girl and leaving her to drown was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for what a judge called ''one of the most cowardly of acts I have ever heard of.''
Troy Lee Carlisle, 28, received the maximum sentence in the death of Dallas Reinhardt at a lake last May.
Dallas, her 4-year-old brother, her stepfather and Carlisle were fishing when the children, wearing life jackets, went for a swim and drifted away from the boat.
The stepfather jumped in and went for the boy, while Carlisle swam to the girl. Neither man had a life jacket and Carlisle said he panicked after swallowing water.
''I was thinking I was going to die or she was going to die,'' Carlisle told police. ''I didn't really want both of us to die, so I figured I'd take it off her and put it around my arm ... but she slipped out of my hand.''
At the sentencing, Judge George Ready said: ''I find his actions to be one of the most cowardly of acts I have ever heard of. I don't know how any reasonable man could have done what you did.''
