BRIEFLY

Daily News of Los Angeles

A North Hollywood woman was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in prison for the beating death of her 4-year-old niece, whose mother had been killed in a drive-by shooting less than a year earlier.

Arcelia Chavez, 48, was convicted Oct. 1 of second-degree murder and assault on a child under 8 causing death.Chavez struck Maria Isabel Cervantes for spitting up food and wetting her pants, then took the child to the bathtub and repeatedly hit her, said Deputy District Attorney Maureen Green.

The girl was then taken to the bedroom and dressed in her baptism dress, and a makeshift altar was set up, the prosecutor said.

Chavez later took the girl to the North Hollywood police station, claiming the child drowned. The woman had taken the youngster in after the child's mother was killed in gang crossfire in November 2000.