From left: William McCue and Carina McCue (Gwinnett County Police) and Zowey McCue (Crowell Brothers Funeral Home).
A Georgia man has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison after years of abuse culminated in the death of his 10-year-old daughter, who was unable to escape a house fire because she had been forced to sleep on plywood inside a bathtub.
William McCue, 51, received three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, as well as an additional life sentence and 120 years in prison, in connection with the killing of Zowey McCue. On Thursday, a jury convicted him of felony murder, two counts each of rape and incest, and three counts of aggravated child molestation, according to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the abuse inside the family’s Loganville home had gone on for years. That history came into sharp focus after the April 17, 2022, fire that tore through the house, located about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta.
When the fire broke out, Carina McCue was able to get the couple’s two younger sons, then 12 and 8, out of the home. But she could not reach Zowey, who was trapped in a windowless bathroom that had been used as the child’s bedroom. The girl died from smoke inhalation. William McCue was not home at the time.
Testimony during the trial revealed that the family’s oldest son, who was 15 at the time, started the fire in what he said was a desperate attempt to escape the abuse inflicted by his parents on him and his siblings.
Carina McCue, 42, also faced criminal charges in the case. She pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. As part of that process, she was required to testify against her husband at trial. She was sentenced to 90 years in prison.
According to testimony, the children were beaten, forced to wear shock collars and had to stand naked on cinder blocks for hours or even days at a time.
“They were not allowed to use the toilets but instead Lowe’s buckets that were emptied once a week and they were never enrolled in school nor homeschooled,” prosecutors wrote. “Evidence showed that the children flourished once they were away from their parents, although they were developmentally and educationally years behind their respective ages.”
Carina McCue testified that her husband admitted to her that he had been sexually assaulting their oldest daughter, then 17, for years.
Jurors handed down a guilty verdict after about four hours of deliberation.
“The treatment of these children was horrible,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in a statement. “This child’s death was unconscionable and preventable, and she and her siblings deserved better than they received from their parents.”
Zowey’s obituary shows she died just three days after celebrating her 10th birthday.
“Zowey enjoyed playing with Legos, playing house, board games, coloring, drawing, throwing the frisbee, playing outside, riding her bike, swimming and jumping on the trampoline. Zowey was a loving little girl, who loved to help with anything she could,” the obituary reads. “At a young age she was so involved with learning as much as she could. She was a princess and to her family she was their little ‘lady bug.’ Her infectious smile was known and her heart was so giving to many.”
