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Father Sentenced To 40 Years For Beating Daughter To Death

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- A father who pleaded guilty to beating his daughter to death and then burying her body will spend the next 40 years behind bars.

Hanif Sims pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death in January.

His girlfriend, Monique Lynch, accepted a plea deal to testify against him in the death of Genesis Sims. Lynch is serving 27 years in prison.

Sims and Lynch were arrested in July 2010, two months after contractors found the body of Genesis Sims under a vacant home in Monument, about 50 miles south of Denver. The couple lived there in 2008, when Genesis was 7.

An arrest affidavit filed shortly after the two were arrested alleged that Lynch beat Genesis with a belt. Sims said he told Lynch to call 911, but that Lynch refused because she was wanted on an arrest warrant, according the affidavit filed by the El Paso County sheriff's office.

Hanif and Genesis Sims
Hanif and Genesis Sims (credit: CBS)

The girl was near death for two days, but Lynch and Sims didn't get her medical help, according to the affidavit.

The couple moved out of the home in early 2009. Investigators believed that Sims and Lynch lived in a Los Angeles homeless shelter from March until December 2009. Two boys who had been living with Sims and Lynch weren't with them when they were arrested.

Authorities said Sims and Lynch had left the children with a friend in California. Those children were later taken into custody by the California Department of Human Services.

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