Jury now ponders couple’s fate
Faith-healing court action goes before jury
By TIM FOUGHT
Associated Press
Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:16 AM PDT
| |
| Randy L. Rasmussen | Associated Press
Clackamas County Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner gives the final closing argument for the prosecution Wednesday in the trial of Carl Brent Worthington and Raylene Worthington in Clackamas County Court in Oregon City. The couple is charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the 2008 death of 15-month-old Ava Worthington. |
OREGON CITY — Ava Worthington lived 15 months and two lives — by the description of the opposing lawyers in the trial of her parents, believers in faith healing who are charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in her death.
On Wednesday, a jury got the task of deciding whether she lived in distress and suffered mightily in her final days while her parents and others anointed her with olive oil but didn’t call a doctor, or whether she was a lively child with a cold who was felled suddenly by a virulent infection.
The toddler, who died in March 2008, was the daughter of Carl Brent Worthington and Raylene Worthington. They are accused of failing to get her the medical attention state law requires.
The Worthingtons are members of a small, independent church in Oregon City, the Followers of Christ, that uses spiritual healing rituals such as the laying on of hands and shuns conventional medicine.
Thirteen days into the trial, the jury got the case late in the day and is expected to begin deliberating Thursday morning.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Argus Observer
