INDIANAPOLIS -- A Lafayette woman who pleaded guilty to the abuse and murder of her stepdaughter should spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The state’s highest court rejected the appeal of Michelle Gauvin for the March 2005 death of her stepdaughter Aiyana, 4.

It is the first time the court has ever upheld a life without parole sentence for a mother who pleaded guilty to killing a child or stepchild.

Gauvin pleaded guilty to murder, confinement, and neglect of a dependent in the case.

She admitted tying Aiyana up, using duct tape over her mouth, and beating her with a broken cutting board as punishment for her misbehavior.

In its 4-1 ruling, the state’s highest court rejected Gauvin’s claim that Indiana’s definition of torture should not apply to parents disciplining their children, even if the disciplinary measures seem extreme.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice Randall Shepard, said, "Michelle submitted Aiyana to abuse so far in excess of its claimed purpose that her actions surely constituted torture."

It also listed several actions that amounted to torture, including weeks of beatings leading up to the girl’s death, force-feeding her an “unpalatable blend of foods, causing Aiyana to vomit,” and photographing her in different states of bondage and forcing her to view the images.

Michelle’s husband, Christian Gauvin, who was the girl’s biological father, was convicted of neglect of a dependent in the case, and was sentenced to the maximum 50 years in prison.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Frank Sullivan Jr. wrote that Michelle’s sentence is “disproportionately severe” when compared to Christian's, and should have been reduced to 65 years in prison.

The Indiana Court of Appeals in January rejected a request to reduce Christian Gauvin's sentence.