Parents to hear evidence in faith-healing death
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A Philadelphia couple who believe in faith healing over medicine is set to hear evidence against them on Wednesday in the death of a second child.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible are in custody after their 8-month-old son, Brandon, died of pneumonia in April.
The Schaibles were still on probation in what prosecutors call the “eerily similar” pneumonia death of their 2-year-old son, Kent, in 2009.
Their seven surviving children are now in foster care.
Herbert Schaible teaches at a school affiliated with their Pentecostal church. He has told police he believes in “divine healing,” and says Jesus died “to break the devil’s power.”
A jury had convicted the couple of involuntary manslaughter in Kent’s death. Defense lawyers say the Schaibles are good parents who don’t intend their children any harm.