Lexington man sentenced for sexually assaulting, killing young girl

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - A Fayette County Circuit Court judge sentenced Andrew Buster to 40 years in prison for the murder and sodomy of 3-year-old Lillyann Grace Reck.

Despite the lengthy sentence, it falls short of the prosecution’s original request.

“It’s not as much as we would’ve liked, but we can’t do anything to bring Lillyann back,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kathryn Webster. “We can just work to ensure he doesn’t have access to kids anymore in the future.”

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Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty against Buster, who pleaded guilty to the murder and sodomy charges.

However, experts determined Buster had a mental disability, which disqualified Buster from being eligible for the death penalty under state law.

“The law just says there’s a very specific type of mental criteria that you have to meet in order to be eligible for the death penalty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t meet that,” said Webster.

Buster’s former sister-in-law, Crystal Sexton, said she is happy with the long sentence but wishes he was sentenced to death.

“I’m excited. I wish he would’ve gotten longer. I wish he would’ve gotten death,” said Sexton.

Lillyann’s father, Joshua Reck, directed his comments towards Buster.

“I beg to the Lord so that I can forgive what you’ve done to some extent, but there ain’t none,” said Reck. “I can’t forgive you for that.”

Buster was also sentenced to 12 months in prison for the sodomy of another three-year-old child. The victim in the case survived, and the sentencing will run concurrently.

The prosecution says Buster will be eligible for parole after serving at least 20 years of his 40-year sentence.

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