Oregon faith healing trial: Jury deliberations resume on negligent homicide charges

Ore. faith healing case: Jury deliberations resume

OREGON CITY, Ore. — A jury has resumed deliberations in the faith healing trial of an Oregon City couple charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year-old son.

The two-week trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley ended Friday with closing arguments.

Prosecutors say the Beagleys failed to provide medical care to their son Neil when it could have saved his life. The Beagleys are members of the Followers of Christ Church, which avoids doctors.

Defense attorneys argue the teenager’s symptoms looked like a bad cold or the flu, and his parents were monitoring him.

In a previous case, the Beagleys’ daughter and son-in-law were acquitted of manslaughter in the death of their 15-month-old daughter from pneumonia that doctors said could have been treated.