EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon man pleaded guilty to the murder of a daughter who died last year from injuries she sustained as a 6-year-old girl in 1991.

Philip Lee Kephart, 45, was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison with a chance for parole after 20 years. In exchange, he agreed to give up all appeal efforts, including one he filed seeking to overturn his 1991 conviction for assault and criminal mistreatment.

Steve Skelton, the Lane County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the 1991 case, laid the groundwork back then for filing an aggravated murder charge should the girl end up dying from the injuries.

Records from the 1991 case show Kephart beat Stephanie Amber Moss and his 9-year-old stepdaughter with rods, wooden paddles, his fist and his feet. He slammed them into walls and poured Tabasco sauce in their eyes. On the day he beat Stephanie into a coma, documents show, he kicked her hard enough to lift her off the floor because she had eaten some of his Easter candy.

Bob Lane, a deputy district attorney, choked up in court despite avoiding a detailed account of Kephart's assault.

"I would hope that what happens today can be more a focus on Stephanie and the Mosses, not on the defendant," he told Judge Jack Billings. "She was 23 years old when she died. The thing that gets a person in this case is that she was 6 years old when it happened."

Barbara and Vaughn Moss, maternal grandparents and legal guardians of the girl they called Amber, spent every day at her side after she became permanently disabled. She underwent more than a dozen surgeries and lived in a nursing home for 16 years before her June 29, 2007, death.

In her statement to the judge, Barbara Moss began by reading the last entry in a daily diary she kept while sitting with Amber.

"My most precious granddaughter," she read. "You have withstood many terrible days and nights, but the end is near and with God's help we can let you go. I was there when you took your first breath. Now I'm here for your last ... you are a very special girl, our baby, our sweet pea and our young lady. I will always love you and always miss you."