Washington: A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to 100 years of hard labour for killing a 5-year-old Indian-origin girl in the US State of Louisiana in 2021.

Following his conviction in January, Joseph Lee Smith from Shreveport was sentenced for killing Mya Patel, a 5-year-old girl.

The incident took place when Mya Patel was playing in a hotel room on Monkhouse Drive when a bullet struck her in the head. Patel was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she battled for three days and was pronounced dead on March 23, 2021.

It was stated that Smith got into an altercation with another man in the parking lot of the Motel that was owned and operated at that time by Vimal and Snehal Patel, who lived in a ground-floor unit with Mya and a younger sibling. During the altercation, Smith fired a shot at the man with a 9-mm handgun. The bullet reportedly missed the man but penetrated through the hotel room and struck Patel in the head before it grazed her mother as well.  District Judge John D Mosely sentenced Smith to 60 years at hard labour and also ordered Smith to serve 20 years for obstruction of justice and 20 years for aggravated battery.  Those terms must also be served without the benefit of probation, parole or reduction of sentence, the order said.