A 34-year old man who drowned his two young sons in order to get back at their mother for leaving him has been sentenced to die in Texas.

Naim Rasoon Muhammad abducted his sons, 5-year old Naim and 3-year old Elijah, while they were on their way to school and drowned them in a creek. He forced their mother, Kametra Sampson, to go along but she escaped and sought help; Muhammad killed the boys before police could find them. Muhammad’s attorney says he grew up in a violent household and was sexually abused, and that was how he learned to interact with people. But the argument didn’t hold with the jurors, who took only three and a half hours to come to the death penalty sentence.

The father said he killed the boys because he wanted to be a father and he thought that would be taken from him.

“It was the ultimate textbook family violence power and control play — ‘If I can’t get you to do what I want you to do through violence, I will go to your very heartstrings,'” a prosecutor said of the murders.

“I apologize for bringing any pain and hurt on anybody for the actions that I have caused to you all,” Muhammad said after the sentence was announced.

Muhammad reportedly told the boys to act like they were swimming as he held them under and, obedient to the end, they did just that.

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