Man Pleads Guilty in Girl’s Starvation
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A man pleaded guilty to participating in the starvation of his girlfriend’s 7-year-old daughter, who weighed 12 pounds when she died. Douglas Bittinger, 28, did nothing to help the child when his girlfriend refused to feed her, prosecutors said. Bittinger, of Burgettstown, near Pittsburgh, testified last year at the trial of Michelle Sue Tharp, who was convicted in November of first-degree murder and sentenced to die. Bittinger pleaded guilty to criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of a child and abuse of a corpse. He could receive 10 to 42 years in prison when he is sentenced May 14, prosecutors said.
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