Atlanta man gets more than 150 years in prison for starving daughter and abusing other children

The midtown skyline and interstate highway system as it merges into downtown Atlanta in the late evening. Viewable are great light trails from the traffic on the highways, Georgia Tech University, and various midtown skyscrapers.

ATLANTA — An Atlanta man accused of killing his four-year-old daughter by denying her food and water has been sentenced to more than 150 years in prison after being convicted of murder, kidnapping and other charges, prosecutors said.

Rodney McWeay, 33, was sentenced Thursday in Treasure McWeay’s death. He was also convicted of other counts stemming from the abuse of his two other children, who are three and four, authorities said.

“Treasure suffered from hunger, thirst and neglect at the hands of her father, who used violence and control to keep her and her brothers from the help they needed,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a statement.

McWeay was arrested in Dec. 2023 after Treasure was pronounced dead at an Atlanta hospital. Police warrants stated that she was extremely malnourished and “her face appeared to be sunken in around the eyes and cheekbones,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. An autopsy found that she weighed only 24 pounds.

McWeay did not have custody of any of his children at the time, authorities said. About five months before Treasure died, he had kidnapped them from their mother’s home in Maryland and prevented Georgia child protection workers from speaking to them, the Journal-Constitution reported.

The Associated Press