Man sentenced in murder of girl, 12, who screamed 'Please Daddy, don't' as she was stabbed and beaten

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for stabbing a 12-year-old girl to death last summer at her home Chicago's Sheridan Park neighborhood.

John Singleton, 31, pleaded guilty to attacking Alexis Stubbs, who she considered her stepfather. He and the girl's mother reportedly had a history together.

Prosecutors said Singleton and the girl's mother were arguing over the phone before he attacked the preteen last June.

RELATED: Man charged with fatally stabbing girl, 12, in Sheridan Park

Her last pleas were heard on voicemail.

"The victim was screaming and begging for her life, saying, 'Please Daddy, don't,'" Assistant State's Attorney Guy Lisuzzo said.

Reading the proffer after bond court, the assistant district attorney said Singleton called Stubbs' mother multiple times in the minutes before stabbing and beating the girl to death.

Prosecutors said Singleton killed Stubbs in a rage after her mother told him he had to vacate her apartment. He'd been staying there since being released from a halfway house a few days earlier on parole after spending three years in custody for attempting to strangle her back in 2014. Singleton had moved back in, but the woman didn't want him there because her lease prohibited felons, prosecutors said.

Initially escaping police following the murder, prosecutors said he sent Stubbs' mother a series of taunting text messages.

"The defendant stated among other things, 'See what you made me do for not appreciate me like you should have done in the first place,'" Lisuzzo said.

Singleton was found by police hiding inside a portable toilet. Following his arrest, Singleton attacked one of the detectives who had been questioning him and was charged with aggravated battery of a police officer in addition to kidnapping and murder.

The judge ordered Singleton be held without bond and remanded him to Cermak Hospital for evaluation. The public defender saying in court he has a history of mental illness and suicidal thoughts.

Minutes after the girl's death over the weekend, maintenance man Reggie Taylor dropped a painter's tarp over the crimson stains blotting the hallway carpet. Blood spatter from the attack continued 10 feet down the hall and into their apartment.

Many of the children who lived in the building were close to Alexis, Taylor said. He didn't want them to see their friend's blood.

"She looked like a little Shirley Temple. Little curls. . . . Very happy all the time," said Taylor. "She was a sweet little kid. Sweet girl, sweet girl."

Taylor said Alexis had an "awesome" mother.

"She loved her child," he said. "They was like Siamese twins, you know, you didn't see them apart. She really took care of her baby."

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.