Dad gets 12 years for starving twins

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Lovejoy father will serve 12 years in prison for nearly starving his twin sons to death.

James McCart pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he starved his 13-month-old twins to the point they could barely move, Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said.

Superior Court Judge Deborah Benefield sentenced McCart to 15 years. He must serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.

“Once his head cleared and he realized what he had done, he made a commitment to do the right thing and assist in the prosecution and the truth-finding process,” said Steve Frey, McCart’s lawyer.

McCart pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty to children, four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of second-degree forgery.

Prosecutors offered McCart a plea deal last year, Frey said.

Last month, a jury found the babies’ mother, Tessa Zelek, guilty in the same case. Zelek, who refused a plea deal, is now serving a 70-year sentence. A judge ordered her to serve 75 percent of her sentence.

McCart testified against Zelek during the trial. He told jurors that he and Zelek went days without feeding the children.

“I don’t know how many days went by that the kids weren’t fed. I thought like two, but I’m not sure,” he told jurors.

Prosecutors said Ashton and Avery McCart were so malnourished that their eyes were sunken in and their clothes hung off  their tiny limbs.

McCart told the jury that the couple was often too high on drugs to care for the babies.

The couple was taking about 20 Methadone tablets a day, along with Xanax, Oxycontin and alcohol, he testified. They obtained the drugs after making prescriptions in their home and forging doctors' signatures, he said.

“At some point we started getting pretty sick [because of the Methadone]. We were both throwing up and we stayed in bed,” McCart testified. “We just ignored the baby monitor. We turned it down.”

Doctors say the boys would have died if their relatives hadn’t intervened.

The boys are staying with McCart’s mother.

The boys are a bit behind other children in their age group and a little smaller because they suffered brain damage from the malnourishment, doctors said.

The boys' maternal grandmother, Christiann Zelek -- a former Henry County schools special education official -- is charged with not reporting the child abuse to police. Her trial is scheduled for January.