Ore. faith healing trial nearly ready for jury
By TIM FOUGHT
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 10:04 AM PDT
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| Raylene Worthington concludes her testimony in Clackamas County Court where she and her husband, Carl Brent, are on trial on manslaughter charges in the death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava, Monday. |
OREGON CITY — A few days after her toddler died, Raylene Worthington told detectives the child had been choking on phlegm.
But on the witness stand Monday, accused of manslaughter, Worthington said she didn’t remember the 15-month-old girl choking at all.
Worthington contested or said she didn’t remember several points from interviews with police on the night of the death and two days later.
‘’I was exhausted and shocked, and it wasn’t a good state of mind to answer questions, I would say,’’ she said.
Worthington and her husband, Carl Brent Worthington, are members of the Followers of Christ, a small church that shuns medical care in favor of prayer and faith healing rituals such as laying on of hands.
They are accused in the death of their daughter, Ava, who died last year of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection, according to the state medical examiner.
In court Monday, a prosecutor read from interview transcripts that quoted Raylene Worthington as saying Ava was ‘’choking on phlegm’’ and a ‘’little chokey.’’ Raylene Worthington testified that she couldn’t think of any time when the girl was choking. She said she couldn’t recall what she meant to convey in the interviews with investigators.
‘’I don’t know, because I’m not sure what I meant,’’ she said.
She was one of the final witnesses in the trial, expected to go to the jury this week.
