Father starved daughter for nearly a year until she died on Christmas | US News

A father who starved his seven-year-old daughter for nearly a year until she died on Christmas Day has been sentenced to just five years in prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, Julius Fineday Sr., 42, “willfully” denied food and medical care to his daughter Jewel Sky Fineday from January 1 through Christmas 2022, “despite being reasonably able to provide necessities.”

Fineday pleaded guilty to aggravated child neglect resulting in death in March and was sentenced on Tuesday.

The father had neglected his daughter in “almost every conceivable way,” said presiding judge Patrick Schiltz when announcing the verdict.

His daughter suffered from malnutrition, had head lice and had not been to the doctor for three years, apart from the corona vaccination, which came with cash rewards. Fineday also prevented his daughter from going to school, where meals were provided.

According to the judge, the girl was “not only thin, but just a skeleton” when she died.

Her cause of death was malnutrition and streptococcal infection due to neglect.

Fineday, of Red Lake, was also sentenced to two years' probation for child neglect, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said.

The court recognized that Fineday's “demonstration of genuine remorse by pleading guilty prior to trial and without a plea agreement was a significant mitigating factor against an even longer prison sentence,” prosecutors said.

Schiltz said Fineday's ruling should serve as a warning to other guardians that “neglecting or abusing a child has negative consequences not only for the child but also for the responsible adult.”

The judge told them to pick up the phone and ask for help if they were unable to provide for a child's basic needs.

Fineday was sentenced less than a month after a New Jersey father was found guilty of manslaughter and child endangerment for killing his six-year-old son and forcing him to run on a treadmill “because he was too fat.”

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