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Uncle expected to be sentenced for killing 5-year-old Lizzy Shelley — and prosecutors want the maximum punishment

Logan • Prosecutors are asking that a Utah man spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing his 5-year-old niece.

Alex Whipple, now 22, is expected to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon after he pleaded guilty last month to charged in connection to the May death of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley.

Whipple pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, child kidnapping, rape of a child and sodomy of a child. In court papers filed ahead of the sentencing, Cache County Attorney James Swink asked 1st District Judge Kevin Allen to dole out the maximum sentence possible.