Couple gets prison for letting child die

NORRISTOWN, Pa. – A husband and wife were each sentenced to two to four years in prison Wednesday for letting one of their 4-year-old quadruplets die of malnutrition.

“The course of conduct is like nothing this court has ever seen,” Montgomery County Judge Richard J. Hodgson said. “There were plenty of opportunities to see doctors, get help, see something was wrong.”

James and Tamra Seymore had pleaded guilty to a general count of homicide; Hodgson ruled July 22 that the evidence supported a conviction for involuntary manslaughter, not the third-degree murder conviction the prosecutor had sought.

Shawn Seymore weighed 25 1/2 pounds when he died, according to court documents. The other three quadruplets and the couple’s teenage daughter are now in foster care.

The Seymores have been imprisoned since they were arrested in July 2003.