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Baby’s Estate Seeks Damages for Starvation

(CN) - The estate of a 15-month-old child starved to death in an Atlanta Extended Stay America hotel claims in court the lodge's management and workers should have known the little girl was in danger and intervened.

In a complaint filed in Gwinnett County, Ga., administratrix Ann Herrera says Alcenti McIntosh was born in a room at the Extended Stay America hotel in August 2013, where she, her mother, an older sister, and three others were being held against their will by defendant Calvin McIntosh.

The three "others" were McIntosh's eldest daughter and two children he allegedly fathered.

As recounted in the complaint, Alcenti McIntosh spent her entire short life in the hotel room.

"Unabated and continually for an extended period of time, Defendant Calvin McIntosh abused and neglected Alcenti McIntosh, the other children in the room, and Iasia Sweeting [Alceti McIntosh's mother] physically, mentally, and emotionally by, among other things, withholding basic necessities such as food and medical treatment," the complaint says.

Herrera claims the hotel and its personnel, knew or should have known that at least six people were living in a single hotel room, and that many of them of were being subjected to "ongoing abuse and neglect."

However, she says, they did nothing.

As a result, "Alcenti McIntosh starved to death in a hotel room on the premises on or about November 11, 2014, as the result of the ongoing, unabated neglect and abuse," the complaint says.

It continues, "At the time of her death, Alcenti McIntosh was 15 months old and weighed approximately seven-and-a-half pounds. An autopsy determined that the manner of death was 'homicide' and that the cause of death was severe protein-energy undernutrition."

"The autopsy also revealed that Alcenti McIntosh had suffered a broken right arm and over 40 fractures to her ribs consistent with squeezing," the complaint says.

Following Alcenti McIntosh's death, her father and stepsister, Najlaa McIntosh were arrested and charged with starving the child to death.

Police also found Iasia Sweeting and the three other children in the room were all suffering from malnourishment and in need of medical attention. Sweeting weighed only 59 pounds at the time.

According to multiple reports, Calvin McIntosh was a member of an Islam-based cult called the Nuwabian Nation of Moors and used starvation as a punishment.

He is currently incarcerated at the Gwinnett County Detention Center in Lawrenceville, Ga.

Herrera seeks unspecified damages on claims of negligence, private nuisance, false imprisonment, child abuse and neglect.

The estate is represented by Gilbert Deitch of Deitch & Rogers in Atlanta.

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