A Philadelphia couple who believe in using faith healing rather than medicine were ordered on Wednesday to stand trial on murder charges over the second pneumonia death of one of their children in a four-year span.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible remained held without bail on third-degree murder charges after their preliminary hearing.
Their two-year-old son Kent died in 2009, followed by eight-month-old Brandon in April. Prosecutors contend both boys were sick for nearly two weeks.
The Schaibles are members and former teachers at a small fundamentalist Christian church, the First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia. They have seven surviving children.
“We believe in divine healing, that Jesus shed blood for our healing and that he died on the cross to break the devil’s power,” Herbert Schaible, 44, said in a police statement read in court on Wednesday.
Medicine, he said, “is against our religious beliefs.”
His wife, Catherine, added in a statement: “It means that we pray and ask to be healed the way that Jesus did when he was on Earth.”
A jury had convicted them of involuntary manslaughter in Kent’s death and they were put on 10 years of probation that included orders to seek medical care if any other child got sick.
After Brandon’s death, a judge found they had violated parole and sent them to prison.
However, defense lawyer Bobby Hoof on Wednesday said Brandon’s autopsy states that he had symptoms for just three days.
“It’s not unreasonable for parents to wait three days to seek medical care,” Hoof said.
Prosecutors have described the boys’ symptoms as “eerily similar,” and said they included labored breathing and a refusal to eat.
Catherine Schaible’s lawyer, though, said her client tried to feed Brandon during his illness, and applied baby powder to keep him comfortable. And the evidence shows he had food in his system, she said.
“This was a mother who certainly, until the very end, was giving this child a lot of love. To take from that that she acted with malice was more than just a stretch,” public defender Mythri Jayaraman said after the hearing.
Their pastor, Nelson Clark, has said the Schaibles lost their sons because of a “spiritual lack” in their lives and insisted they would not seek medical care even if another child appeared near death.
Their other children, the oldest nearly 18, are now in foster care.
The Schaibles return to court on July 3 to be formally arraigned on murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and conspiracy charges.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was