A man convicted of stabbing his two young cousins more than 100 times as he babysat them will spend the rest of his life in prison, a federal judge ordered on Monday.
The murders of Destiny Shaw, 9, and her brother Travis DuBois Jr., 6, on the Spirit Lake reservation in North Dakota in 2011 went unsolved for more than a year, WDAZ reported.
Authorities eventually pinned the ghastly stabbings on Valentino Bagola — although the children’s father had initially confessed to the murders.
In a videotaped confession, Bagola admitted to raping Shaw prior to the stabbings. In spite of the recorded admission, Bagola later recanted.
Before being arrested, Bagola served as a pallbearer in the funerals of his two younger relatives.
A jury convicted Bagola, 20, of the first-degree murders in September, the Grand Forks Herald reported. The life sentence was mandatory. The only question was whether the judge would order Bagola to serve them concurrently. Despite the prosecutor’s urging, the judge declined to impose consecutive sentences.
