Jasmine Albarran, just 10 years old, sat on the witness stand in a Marion County courtroom Friday and calmly read the words she had written down.

“Christmas will be coming soon,” Jasmine read aloud, “and this is my present to my daddy and the rest of the family: I got to tell the judge how much I love and miss all of you.”

Shortly thereafter, a man who had murdered her father and other members of her family — seven people in all — was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, plus another 88 years.

Prosecutors portrayed Desmond Turner, 31, as the main triggerman in the 2006 Hamilton Avenue slayings — Indianapolis’ worst mass murder.

A family member of one of his victims portrayed him as nothing short of a “monster.”

Turner had a decidedly different description. Speaking for several minutes at his sentencing, he asserted his innocence and accused prosecutors and investigators of sitting on evidence that he said would clear him. He plans to appeal.

“Now I know how Christ felt when he died for our sins,” Turner said. “I will be redeemed, and this is only the beginning of the fight.”

Friday’s hearing merely formalized the life sentence given to Turner at the end of his 10-day bench trial last month, but it offered relatives of the victims their first chance to describe their suffering in court.

For Jasmine, celebrations have taken on new meaning since she lost her father, Magno Albarran, 29.

She honors him on his birthday with a cake and by opening a present. Each Christmas, she and her mother, Kimberly Fischer — Magno’s ex-wife — hang an ornament containing the slain relatives’ names.

“It hurts, and it is really hard not having them here,” Jasmine testified. “I still needed my daddy to teach me Spanish and to help me grow up. I still needed my daddy to hug, hold and to kiss goodnight.”

Also killed in a torrent of assault rifle fire were Emma Valdez, 46, Jasmine’s grandmother; Valdez’s partner, Alberto Covarrubias, 56; the couple’s children, Alberto, 11, and David, 8; Valdez’s adult daughter, Flora Albarran, 22; and Flora’s 5-year-old son, Luis.

After the sentencing, Maria Flores, the sister of victim Emma Valdez, tried to find some measure of comfort.

“At least we can go to sleep now in peace,” she said, “and know (Turner) won’t be knocking on our doors.”

In less than two weeks, Turner’s alleged accomplice, James Stewart, goes on trial.

Turner and Stewart entered Valdez’s home looking for a cache of money or drugs that didn’t exist, prosecutors say.

“This crime struck a collective blow to our community,” said Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, asking Judge Robert Altice to impose maximum sentences for Turner’s other charges of confinement, robbery and burglary. Altice stopped short of that, giving Turner about half the maximum.

Relatives testified or wrote in letters that they and their children still face unanswered questions about what happened and why. They have endured depression, falling grades in school, troubled marriages and sleepless nights.

Turner looked down at the defense table during some of the testimony, including when Fischer told him: “I am not here to judge you, but to give you the opportunity to learn about the lives you have taken.”

Esmeralda Espinoza, 19, Valdez’s niece, was more blunt. She called Turner a “cold-blooded serial killer,” then added: “It takes a monster to kill a child.”

When the judge opened the floor to Turner, he said his conviction was anything but just and that the killers were still on the loose. He called Brizzi “the political showman.”

Brizzi had pursued the death penalty against Turner until September. Citing concerns over a lack of direct physical evidence tying Turner to the murder scene, he withdrew the request in exchange for Turner waiving his right to a jury.

Stewart’s trial, set to begin Dec. 3, will include much of the same evidence. But this time, Altice won’t decide his guilt. A jury will.

Though Brizzi isn’t seeking a death sentence or life without parole, Stewart, 33, would face an effective life sentence if convicted of the same charges as Turner.

Unlike Turner, Stewart wasn’t well-known on Hamilton Avenue. But prosecutors may have a strong piece of evidence in Stewart’s purported confession to a former girlfriend hours after the killings.

Altice has allotted three days for jury selection beginning Nov. 30. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.