A vegan mom convicted of murder in the malnutrition death of her young son was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Sheila O’Leary, 38, whose family followed a strict vegan diet, was convicted in June on six charges — first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, child abuse, and two counts of child neglect — in the death of Ezra O’Leary. Her sentencing in Lee County, Florida, had previously been postponed four times.
Her husband, Ryan Patrick O’Leary, remains in jail while awaiting trial on the same charges. Investigators said the couple told them the family ate only raw fruits and vegetables, although the toddler also was fed breast milk. The 18-month-old boy weighed 17 pounds and was the size of a seven-month-old baby when he died in September 2019, a police report said.
“This child did not eat. He was starved to death over 18 months,” Francine Donnorummo, the special victim’s unit chief at the Lee County State Attorney’s Office, said during the trial.
Her lawyer showed pictures of O’Leary with one of her children during the trial, seeking to show she never intended to harm them.
“Does that look like a mom who wants to kill her kid?” attorney Lee Hollander said. “Just because it happened doesn’t mean she committed a crime.”
Hollander has requested a new trial, saying “errors” led to her conviction. If that motion is granted, she said she wants a new lawyer, telling the judge in July that her attorney didn’t defend her the way she wanted him to.
The Cape Coral couple had two other children, ages 3 and 5, who also were malnourished, investigators said. A fourth child had been returned to her biological father during an earlier malnutrition case in Virginia, court records show.
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