Red Lake father given 5 years in prison for Christmas Day starvation death of 7-year-old daughter

A father has been given a five-year prison term for neglecting his 7-year-old daughter to the point that she died of starvation on Christmas Day while living in wretched conditions on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

Julius Fineday Sr., 42, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to felony child neglect in connection with the death of Jewel Sky Fineday on Dec. 25, 2022, at the Indian Health Service.

On April 30, jurors convicted Jewel’s grandmother, Sharon Marie Rosebear, 63, on the same charge. Rosebear’s sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

During the sentencing of Fineday, Judge Patrick Schiltz pointed out that Jewel’s starvation was not due to a lack of resources or inadequate available food in the house, but a lack of care that left the girl “not just thin, but skeletal” at the time of her death.

Schiltz added that he hoped Fineday’s five-year sentence will send a signal that “neglecting or abusing a child will result in negative consequences not only for the child, but also the responsible adult.”

Defense attorney Robert Richman argued in a court filing ahead of sentencing for a year in prison for his client and noted that Jewel “died as a result of poverty, neglect and a family overwhelmed by the burden of caring for 10 minor children. ... Had Indian Family and Children Services intervened sooner, [she] would still be alive.”

Richman backed up his contention by pointing out that Jewel’s home by 2021 “was no long fit for human habitation. ... The home had no running water, heat or indoor plumbing. ... The walls had open holes with insulation hanging out, and the house was infested with mice and cockroaches.”

Fineday has acknowledged his neglect of Jewel, the attorney continued, and “tried to provide food for [her] and her siblings, and did not realize she was dangerously malnourished.”

According to her online obituary, “Jewel loved to spend time watching TikTok on her dad’s phone. Jewel was a very quiet girl, and when Grandpa would sing and beat his drum, she would dance just hard and out dance all the other kids.”

Jewel’s native name was Miikawaddizimikinaakikezens, meaning “Beautiful Turtle Girl,” the obituary noted. “She loved turtle[s] especially sea turtles.”