Atlanta parents charged with starving baby to death

The parents of a 5 1/2-month-old southwest Atlanta baby who weighed six pounds at the time of his death were arrested Thursday and charged with murder.

The infant's parents, Tina Hanna, 25, and Lefty Hodge, 42, also face charges of cruelty to children and are being held without bond in Fulton County Jail, according to the sheriff's inmate website.

Mombera Hanna died from protein and calorie malnutrition, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Wednesday.

The state Department of Family and Children Services had already taken the couple's two other children, ages 1 and 4, after their youngest was discovered not breathing on Sept. 3.

The little boy was transported from their apartment on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Atlanta to Hughes Spalding Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"[The baby] was extremely thin and appeared to be malnourished and dehydrated," said Atlanta police Detective Summer Benton. The parents said Mombera had "always been that way," said Benton, adding the couple's other two children appeared in much better physical condition.