The Gwinnett County father who pleaded guilty to starving his young daughter to death will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Eman Moss tearfully read a letter before the court he had written to his deceased daughter Emani.

"I want you to know that Daddy made a terrible mistake and he's very sorry from the bottom of my heart," he read.

Defense attorney Christian Lamar asked Judge George Hutchinson to impose a sentence of life with parole.

"He understands his responsibility in this tragedy, so Your Honor, we're asking this court for mercy," says Lamar.

But Hutchinson refused and sentenced Moss to life without parole.

"We think that the judge imposed the correct sentence; we were obviously arguing for that," says Gwinnett Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones.

Moss pleaded guilty in June and was spared the death penalty by agreeing to testify against his wife, Emani's stepmother, Tiffany Moss.

Lamar says while his client takes responsibility for not seeking treatment for Emani as she lay dying in her bed, it was his wife who was the primary caregiver for the girl.  Moss claims to have offered her food when he came home in between his two jobs, but it was too late to save her.

He claims Tiffany Moss talked him into disposing of the body and claiming the girl ran away in order to avoid losing the couple's other two younger children. Moss, who had already attempted to set the child's body on fire in a trash can, became remorseful and called police.

Jones expects the death penalty case against Tiffany Moss to begin sometime next year.