Convicted child killer Christopher Payne was sentenced to 51 years in prison Thursday in the deaths of his two oldest children, 3-year-old Ariana and 4-year-old Tyler.
Payne, who was sentenced to death last month, received the additional sentence on three counts of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death and two counts of concealing a dead human body.
Judge Richard Fields of Pima County Superior Court sentenced Payne to longer aggravated sentences on each count but chose to run two of the child-abuse counts concurrently with each other for fear the Arizona Court of Appeals would overturn consecutive sentences.
Assistant Pima County Public Defender John O'Brien asked Fields to set aside the child-abuse convictions, saying the elements of the crime mirrored those already contained within the murder convictions and therefore, violated Payne's rights.
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Fearing the Court of Appeals might agree with O'Brien, Fields ordered Payne to serve the 51 years at the same time as the death sentences.
When given the opportunity to make a statement, Payne declined.
According to prosecutors, Payne, 30, locked the children in a bedroom closet and starved them to death over the course of a several weeks.
Once they died, Payne stored the children's remains in garbage bags for months before placing them in a 25-gallon plastic tub and taking them to a storage unit on East Prince Road.
On Feb. 18, 2007, a storage facility manager found Ariana's remains.
Payne was linked to the storage unit two weeks later. Prosecutors believe Tyler's body fell out of the tub into a dumpster. It was never found.
Payne told detectives the children starved themselves to death once they realized he wouldn't be returning them to their mother, Jamie Hallam.
Payne's live-in girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, testified against Payne and was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Monday.
When authorities arrested the couple, their young son, Christopher Jr., appeared to be in fine physical health. He now resides with relatives.
