Teen Sentenced In "Mortal Kombat" Death

A Colorado teen has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for his role in the death of a 7-year-old girl during an apparent imitation of the "Mortal Kombat" video game.

Lamar Roberts was sentenced Friday in Greeley's Weld County District Court. The 18-year-old pleaded guilty last month to knowingly or recklessly causing a death through child abuse.

Prosecutors say Roberts and 17-year-old Heather Trujillo were baby-sitting Zoe Garcia on Dec. 6, 2007. They say the two kicked, hit and slammed Trujillo's half-sister to the floor.

According to arrest affidavits, Trujillo and Roberts were baby-sitting Zoe and her twin, 3-year-old sisters, who were sleeping in another room, while Trujillo's mother worked at a nearby bar.

"Trujillo said they were acting out the video game 'Mortal Combat' [sic] by savagely hitting and kicking Zoe, even dropping her on her side, which broke her wrist. Roberts, who claimed to be a martial-arts expert with his hands registered as 'lethal weapons,' said Zoe had asked him to stop hitting her but that he didn't because 'I was drunk,'" the Denver Post reports.

Zoe began to have trouble breathing. She seemed to fall asleep but was making wheezing and gurgling noises instead of normal breathing. Trujillo and Roberts put her in the bathtub and ran warm water on her back in an attempt to revive her, according to the affidavit.

When Zoe stopped breathing altogether, Trujillo and Roberts cracked an egg in her moth to see if she was "messing with them" according to the affidavit. The egg went down Zoe's throat.

But Trujillo and Roberts waited 15 minutes before calling for help.

Trujillo pleaded guilty in July to negligently causing death through child abuse. She must serve six years in Colorado's youth offender system.