A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after admitting suffocating his three-year-old stepsister

Brian Scales, from Trotwood, Dayton, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, aggravated murder and child endangering on Wednesday.

Scales admitted strangling Tristan Carlton on February 14 this year, the Dayton Daily News reported.

He had been babysitting the little girl and her eight-year-old sibling at the time.

The toddler’s body was found ‘in her bed, cold and stiff’ by their mother Inas Scales when she returned home from shopping that afternoon.