A 33-year-old woman from West Virginia faces a lifetime in prison after being convicted of murdering her 4-year-old daughter out of jealousy over the attention the child received from her husband.

On Thursday, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Michael Froble sentenced Rebakah Weikle to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life in a state penitentiary. This verdict followed her guilty plea to charges of first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death for the 2022 tragedy involving her daughter, Haley. With the sentences served back-to-back, Weikle will not be eligible for parole for at least 30 years.

The prosecution revealed a chilling motive behind the crime—maternal jealousy, as noted in a report by WOAY, a CBS affiliate in Oak Hill, West Virginia.

“Young Haley lay down, and at some point, Rebakah made the decision to cut her throat,” described Summers County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Lefler in court, recounting the harrowing scene where the child fought back as her mother delivered multiple wounds. “She then succeeded in making the fatal cut that ended Haley’s life.”

Officials reported that the gruesome act took place at the family’s residence in the Forest Hill area during July 2022, driven by Weikle’s jealousy over her husband’s affection for their daughter. Investigations uncovered that she had conducted online searches on how to commit the crime beforehand.

“She expressed a profound resentment towards her daughter for reasons only known to her, and chose to end her life,” Lefler stated, as per WOAY. “It’s almost unfathomable to comprehend.”

Prosecutors said that after the killing, Weikle left her daughter’s body in her bed overnight, letting her husband find the mutilated body the following morning, WV MetroNews reported.

Weikle reportedly attempted to conceal the crime by hiding the knife and the clothes she had been wearing before going to bed, leaving the child’s body in the home overnight.

When her husband rushed to the bedroom and discovered the scene, he instructed Weikle to call 911. She reportedly entered the numbers but did not place the call, prompting him to take the phone and contact emergency services himself.

In the yearslong investigation that followed, Weikle repeatedly tried to shift blame onto her husband, falsely claiming he killed the child to cover up alleged sexual abuse. Prosecutors said those allegations were untrue, and, as part of her plea, she ultimately admitted they were fabricated.

“She made allegations that I think makes it easier to believe that someone would kill their daughter probably because there was something more sinister going on,” Lefler said, per Bluefield, West Virginia, NBC affiliate WVVA. “I think that’s easier to digest than a mother killing her four-year-old daughter in her bed, in her own bedroom, because she resented and developed a jealousy of her daughter.”

Lefler also said digital evidence, including cellphone data and internet searches, helped investigators piece together what occurred inside the home.

“We were able to piece together a better picture of what occurred including her cellphone activity and her searches which established that she was one that committed this act,” he said.

The child’s father also faced charges in the case, pleading guilty to child abuse and neglect and receiving a sentence of home confinement and probation. Prosecutors said he was not involved in the killing but had failed to address warning signs leading up to the crime.

“I want everybody to know how evil the person that she is and what all she has done. She killed a 4-year-old baby, my baby,” the father said in court. “She was jealous that I was paying attention to her, doing what I was supposed to do, watching out for her. I was trying to keep her safe.”

Officials said the case required coordination among multiple law enforcement agencies across the region and took years to fully unravel as investigators worked to overcome conflicting claims about what happened inside the home.

Weikle is expected to remain incarcerated for decades, with the court acknowledging she is likely to die in prison, WOAY reported.