A vegan woman who was convicted of murder in the malnutrition death of her son will have to wait a little longer for her sentence.
Sheila O'Leary, 38, whose family followed a strict vegan diet, was convicted in June of six counts -- first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, child abuse and two counts of child neglect -- in the death. by Ezra O'Leary.
Her sentencing was postponed to August 15 in Lee County, Florida.
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Her husband Ryan Patrick O'Leary will also stand trial on the same charges this month.
Investigators said the boy's parents told them the family ate only raw fruits and vegetables, though the baby also drank breast milk.
The boy weighed just 17 pounds (8 kilograms) and was the size of a 7-month-old baby, according to a police report.
"This child was not eating. He was starving for 18 months," Francine Donnorummo, chief of the special victims unit at the Lee County State's Attorney's Office, said during the trial.
Sheila O'Leary during her trial in Fort Myers, Fla., on June 22, 2022.AP
The couple had two other children, ages 3 and 5, who were also malnourished, the researchers said.
A fourth child was returned to his biological father during an earlier malnutrition case in Virginia, court records show.
His attorney showed photos of O'Leary with one of his sons during the trial, trying to show that he never meant to harm them.
[The son of a former judge beats his mother to death and jumps from a 16-story building in New York]
"Does she look like a mother who wants to kill her child?" attorney Lee Hollander said.
"Just because that happened doesn't mean she committed a crime."
Hollander requested a new trial, saying "mistakes" led to the conviction.