Murder verdict for vegan parents

By BETH WARREN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/03/07

A vegan couple committed murder when they didn't make sure their
newborn received proper nutrition, a Fulton jury decided Wednesday.

The courtroom was so quiet after the judge read the verdict — the
first of its kind in Georgia — that the clank of the handcuffs
being fastened around the parents' wrists echoed through the room.

The father, Lamont Thomas, 31, then called out "We're going to jail
for no reason" as his girlfriend, Jade Sanders, 27, stared ahead,
visibly stunned.

Thomas told visiting Senior Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell that
he and Sanders were proud of their first child, naming him Crown. "We
didn't starve our son for weeks and weeks," the dad said before
deputies led him out of the courtroom.

The verdicts mean the couple will receive automatic life sentences.
The judge might tack on more prison time at a sentencing hearing next
week.

After hearing the verdicts, Sanders' and Thomas' mothers sat
silently, wiping at tears. They remembered a grandson who smiled and
laughed and didn't cry any more than any other child, said Thomas'
attorney, Brandon Lewis.

Lewis turned to the defendants' moms and vowed to appeal: "I want you
to remember, it's far from being over."

The infant was born in the bathtub of a Buckhead apartment but never
taken to a doctor while alive. He was dead when his parents took him
to Piedmont Hospital, across the street from their apartment, April
25, 2004. At six weeks old he weighed just 3 1/2 pounds and was so
emaciated, doctors could count his bones through his skin.

Fulton prosecutor Chuck Boring said the verdict isn't a condemnation
of veganism, a strict form of vegetarianism that doesn't allow the
consumption or use of animal products. Instead, jurors believed
prosecutors' assertions that the couple intentionally neglected and
underfed the child and then tried to use the lifestyle as a shield.

In similar cases, a New York jury convicted a vegan couple on murder
charges in the death of their child, but a Florida jury was more
lenient, acquitting vegan parents of murder and instead convicting
them on reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter, an unintentional
death. In that case, the couple had successfully raised two children
as vegans, but their third child died.

"The vegan diet is fine," Boring said after the verdict in the
Georgia case. "These parents lied about what they fed him. He just
was not fed enough."

The mother initially told police she fed her baby organic apple juice
and soy milk. But the soy milk containers in her apartment clearly
state that soy milk is not to be used as a substitute for baby
formula, her lawyer admitted. At trial, the mom said she also fed her
son breast milk and soy milk formula.

Outside the courtroom, Lewis, the defense attorney, said he believes
the parents unintentionally starved their child by feeding him apple
juice that may have acted as a diuretic and blocked the absorption of
nutrients from the soy milk, soy formula and breast milk. They never
took Crown to a doctor because they feared hospitals were infested
with germs, he said.

At trial, government witness and vegan expert Amy Lanou told jurors
the child's health may have been compromised by his diet, but he
should still have been alive if fed enough food.

Lanou, a nutritionist who authored the book "Healthy Eating for Life
for Children," on raising children as vegans, said all parents should
know that babies need adequate amounts of breast milk or formula.

Prosecutors Boring and Mike Carlson convinced jurors that the neglect
was intentional.

Boring said outside the courtroom that he'd always be haunted by the
case. "I'll never understand 'Why?' " he said.