A US man who raped and killed a 4-year-old girl was sentenced to life in prison. 46-year-old Jacob Sullivan had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for Grace Packer in 2016, AP reported.

He was sentenced to death for the rape, murder, and dismemberment of his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter,realizing the sick fantasies of rape and murder, which he shared with the teenager's mother.

Pennsylvania has a moratorium on the death penalty, but juries can still impose the sentence.

The defense requested life imprisonment for Sullivan, insisting that Grace’s mother, Sara Packer, masterminded the gruesome plot and controlled Sullivan. Sara Packer, who testified last week and confessed to the jury that she wanted her daughter to die and take part in the conspiracy, is due to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence.

Sullivan and Sara Packer took Grace to an empty house, gave her  lethal overdose of medicine, tied her arms and legs, put a gag in her mouth. Sullivan raped her while Sara Packer watched.

They left the girl in the house so that she died from an overdose of drugs. However, Grace survived. Sullivan and Sarah Packer returned to the house 12 hours later, and the man strangled the girl.

For months, Sara Packer and Sullivan kept Grace's body in cat litter, then dismembered it and threw it away in a remote area, where hunters found it in October 2016.