Appellants Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas were tried jointly before a jury. Both Appellants were found guilty of the malice murder of their infant son Crown Shakur by failing to seek necessary and adequate medical attention for him and involuntary manslaughter during the commission of reckless conduct by depriving the child of necessary sustenance, which was a lesser included offense of a second malice murder count. Appellants were also found guilty of two counts of felony murder during the commission of cruelty to children in the first degree and two separate counts charging those underlying offenses. One child cruelty count charged that Appellants willfully deprived the child of necessary sustenance to the extent that his health and well-being were jeopardized, and the other child cruelty count charged that Appellants maliciously caused the child cruel and excessive physical and mental pain by failing to seek necessary and adequate medical attention for him. Treating the felony murder verdicts as surplusage, the trial court entered judgments of conviction on the malice murder verdicts, merged the remaining counts, and sentenced both Appellants to life imprisonment. Appellants filed separate motions for new trial. The trial court denied Thomas’ motion but granted Ms. Sanders’ motion based on ineffective assistance of trial counsel only as to the charge of malice murder, finding that because of counsel’s deficient performance there was a reasonable probability that the jury would have returned a different verdict on malice murder as to Ms. Sanders but not on the remaining counts. Thereafter, the trial court vacated Ms. Sanders’ malice murder conviction, entered a new judgment of conviction only on the first felony murder verdict, and again sentenced her to life imprisonment. Separate notices of appeal were filed. We dismissed Thomas’ original appeal, as his motion for new trial was untimely and did not toll the time for filing a notice of appeal. However, he was subsequently granted an out-of-time appeal and then timely filed a notice of appeal. The two appeals are consolidated for disposition in this single opinion.
1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdicts, the evidence shows that Appellants were vegans who fed their baby only soy milk and apple juice. When the victim was approximately six weeks old and weighed three and one-half pounds, Appellants took him to the emergency room, claiming that the child was well until a few minutes earlier. However, the victim was extremely thin and emaciated, with a “skin and bones” appearance and ribs which could easily be seen. He was dirty and was wearing a diaper with dried excrement in it. He was not breathing, had no heartbeat, and was very dehydrated and cool to the touch. The hospital staff was unable to resuscitate the victim. Unlike most parents with a child in critical condition, Appellants were unemotional. At trial, Thomas volunteered that the food for the baby was very expensive, and Ms. Sanders admitted that she had not told coworkers about her pregnancy.
