New York Man Sentenced for Disabled Sister's Torture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A New York man has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for raping, scalding and torturing his disabled half-sister before their mother killed her last year.

Thirty-two-year-old Luke Wright was sentenced Tuesday in Buffalo. He was convicted last month on 10 criminal counts.
Laura Cummings was 23 when her mother suffocated her in the family's North Collins home. Eva Cummings is in prison after pleading guilty in October.

Prosecutors say Wright threw boiling water on Laura Cummings' face before she died and sexually abused her for years.
Wright's lawyer had argued he wasn't criminally responsible because he's mildly mentally retarded and was brain-damaged by childhood beatings.

But prosecutors said Wright's detailed confessions and jailhouse phone calls proved he knew what he'd done was wrong.