ATLANTA -- Vegan parents in Georgia were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison after their 6-week-old son died of malnutrition.

The baby, Crown Shakur, weighed only 3.5 pounds. He'd been fed mostly soy milk and apple juice. Vegans typically do not consume animal products.

Defense lawyers say the first-time parents did the best they could for their son while adhering to the strict lifestyle of vegans. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby -- who was born in a bathtub at their home -- was in danger until minutes before he died in April of 2004.

Jurors deliberated about seven hours before convicting the couple last week. Lamont Thomas, 31, and Jade Sanders, 27, were convicted of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

Prosecutors claimed the baby suffered a prolonged and painful death, not because of what he was fed, but because he was fed too little and that his nutritional needs were deliberately ignored by his parents. They prosecutors said the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away.

During the trial, the father of the baby told the judge that wasn't true.

"We're vegetarians; we are against animal cruelty, so why would I be cruel to my son? Why would I do something with his body? We are against animals being murdered; why would we be cruel to him and try to do something to his body," asked Thomas.

Thomas criticized the prosecution and jury after he and his wife were found guilty.

Prosecutors said the couple slowly starved the baby on a diet of soy milk and juice in such small quantities that he died of complications from malnourishment. The kitchen cupboards in the parents' apartment were empty at the time.

But the father denied he caused his baby's death.

"The fact that we named him Crown, we were proud of him. We weren't trying to kill my son," Thomas said in court Wednesday.

Being found guilty of felony murder calls for a mandatory life prison sentence.

The parent's lawyer said he would appeal the sentence.