Austin, TX -- A Hays County jury sentenced a father to the maximum sentence of life in prison for severely abusing his three children.

Cesar Mojica was convicted last week on 14 counts of injury to a child. The 12-person jury took less than two days in deliberations of the punishment trial. It handed the verdict over to Judge Jack Robison just after 10:30am Thursday; Mojica stood by with no emotion.

The 24-year-old faced up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine on each of the 14 counts of injury to a child. The jury unanimously handed down that maximum sentence. Mojica will serve 14 life in prison sentences and will have to pay $140,000 in fines.

Those life sentences will be served consecutively. Mojica must serve 30 years before he will be eligible for parole.

During the punishment trial prosecutors told jurors that Mojica's three young children were found malnourished and had wounds ranging from broken bones to bite marks, welts and bruises.

HCSO

Cesar Mojica

The children were taken from his Dripping Springs home in 2006. At the time his daughter was just 4-years-old and his twins were 3.

During testimony, Mojica confessed to jurors that he thought nothing of biting his children and said he never thought he broke any of their bones; he did admit to hitting and kicking the children.

He told jurors that was how he was disciplined as a child.

Mojica's defense attorneys argued that he has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. His attorney, Will Holgate, said Mojica's lack of reaction during the punishment verdict was indicative of his mental state.

"His reaction was he wanted pictures of his children. He does act like an 8-year-old. I deal with him and it's like dealing with an 8-year-old boy, and I think that's the way he took it," said Holgate.

Holgate had asked the jury for a punishment of probation in each of the 14 counts of injury to a child. He says he will make an appeal in the case.

Prosecutors called witnesses that testified saying the children would probably never fully recover from the damages of the abuse.

The children -- and a fourth sibling who was born to their mother after she was arrested -- currently live with a foster family who plans to adopt them, prosecutors said. Mojica's parental rights were terminated in May 2007. The mother, Sara Amaya, who faces trial at a later date in the abuse, voluntarily gave up her parental rights.