An Atlanta vegan couple whose malnourished 6-week-old son starved to death after they fed him a too-limited diet of soy milk and apple juice will have to serve their life sentences for murder, Georgias top court ruled on Monday.

The Georgia Supreme Courts unanimous decision rejected appeals by Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas.

The two first-time parents in their 20s at the time lived in Atlantas Buckhead neighborhood. They rushed their infant, Crown Shakur, to the hospital in April 2004 after he began to have trouble breathing. Doctors who couldnt resuscitate him determined he died because of extreme malnourishment or starvation.

Police searching the couples apartment found a soy milk bottle, an apple juice bottle and a rancid-smelling baby bottle caked with debris.

At the 2007 trial, prosecutors said the soy milk cartons in their apartment stated that it wasnt to be used as a substitute for baby formula. They also contended that the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as his body wasted away. He was just 3.5 pounds when he died, about as much as a baby weighs at 7 months into a normal pregnancy.

A jury convicted them of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

“No matter how many times they want to say, `Were vegans, were vegetarians, thats not the issue in this case,” prosecutor Chuck Boring said during the trial. “The child died because he was not fed. Period.”

Vegan couple’s life sentence holds in baby’s death