Father let his 7-year-old daughter starve until she died on Christmas Day

A Minnesota father was sentenced to just five years in prison for starving his seven-year-old daughter to death on the state's Red Lake Reservation.

A judge described the young woman as “emaciated” when she died on December 25, 2022 because her father, 42-year-old Julius Fineday Sr., had “willfully deprived” her of care.

He will now spend five years behind bars and two years on probation for child neglect, Minnesota District Attorney Andrew Luger announced.

Between January 1, 2022, and December 25, 2022, Fineday deprived the girl of necessary food, medical care and other basic needs, even though she was “reasonably able” to provide those items to her, court documents say.

Authorities say that neglect ultimately caused the young girl's death. Fineday pleaded guilty to child neglect causing the death of a child in March 2024 and was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.

The man had previously been charged with second-degree manslaughter, but the district attorney did not mention that charge in his press release.

The child's death is believed to be due to the combined effects of malnutrition and a group A streptococcus infection, the press release said. This type of bacteria can cause a number of serious or fatal illnesses.

In announcing the verdict, presiding judge Patrick Schiltz stressed that Fineday had allegedly neglected the young girl “in virtually every way” that a caregiver could neglect a child.

The judge said Fineday had deprived her of necessary food, failed to take action against the child's head lice and even prevented her from attending school.

If she had attended school, she would have been able to receive nutritious meals there, Judge Schiltz said.

In addition to this neglect, the judge accused Fineday of not taking the child to any medical appointments for about three years, apart from the Covid vaccination, for which the household received financial incentives.

One of the most heartbreaking details the judge highlighted was that the child was starving, not because of a lack of resources or food in the home, but because the girl was not being adequately cared for, the press release said.

The judge found that at the time of her death, the minor A was “not only thin, but merely skeletal.”

Defense attorney Robert Richman argued in a court filing before the verdict that Fineday should be sentenced to a year in prison, saying the child “died as a result of poverty, neglect and a family overwhelmed with the burden of caring for 10 minor children. … Had the Indian Family and Children Service intervened sooner, [she] would still be alive,” said the Retrieved 2018-08-18.

The lawyer allegedly argued that Fineday had admitted to neglecting the girl and “attempted to get food for [her] and her siblings and did not know that she was dangerously malnourished.”

In sentencing Fineday, the court stated that the severity of the neglect justified an “upward departure” from the usual sentencing guidelines.

However, the court also acknowledged that the man had shown “sincere remorse” by pleading guilty before trial and without a plea agreement.

Judge Schiltz said the ruling should serve as a reminder that “the neglect or abuse of a child has negative consequences not only for the child, but also for the responsible adult.”

The judge urged caregivers who fail to meet their children’s basic needs to at least “pick up the phone” and seek help.

Another person, Sharon Rosebear, who was reportedly the girl's grandmother, was also found guilty of child neglect in the case following a trial in April 2024 and is awaiting sentencing, according to the district attorney.

Rosebear, 63, also withheld necessary food and medical care from the child in 2022, prosecutors said earlier this year.