North Carolina man found guilty in deaths of wife, daughter
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina man accused of killing his wife and daughter and posting pictures of their bodies to Facebook has been found guilty of first-degree murder.
CBS affiliate WNCN-TV reports a Wake County jury reached its verdict Monday in the trial of Elhadji Seydou Diop. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the death of his wife, and an additional 20 to 25 years for his daughter's death.
Diop was arrested after his niece in Senegal saw Facebook posts that included pictures of the two bodies on the floor next to a staircase, WNCN-TV reports.
Investigators say that Diop posed the bodies of 40-year-old Aminata Drame and 2-year-old Fatim Diop on their backs facing each other. At trial, prosecutors pointed to Diop's caption on the photos, which read "Look what gd did2 me ." A Senegalese online newspaper reported Diop had also written on his Facebook page, "They just died, and I will be next. Who will stop me?"
There were no witnesses for the defense.
Prosecutors said Diop strangled Aminata Drame in April 2016, but medical examiners couldn't tell if Fatim Diop had been strangled, suggesting she may have been smothered when her fighting parents fell on her in their Raleigh townhouse.
Diop had initially agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, according to Kristen Fetter, a Wake County prosecutor.
But Charles Caldwell, Diop's court-appointed attorney, said his client "had a change of heart."