A Phoenix man has been sentenced to death for the 2011 death of a 10-year-old girl who was locked in a storage box in sweltering summer heat.
Jurors in Maricopa County Superior Court deliberated for only a few hours Thursday before deciding that John Allen should get the death penalty.
The jury previously determined that Ame Deal's death was especially cruel or heinous.
The 29-year-old Allen was convicted of first-degree murder and child abuse on Nov. 8.
His 28-year-old wife Sammantha Allen was a cousin of Deal's and was convicted of murder in the girl's death in June. She now is on Arizona's death row.
Prosecutors say the couple forced Ame into the small, plastic box as punishment for stealing ice pops.
The girl was found dead the following morning.
