'Don't be naive,' prosecutor tells Worthington jurors (OR, faith healing trial)

"Don't be naive," prosecutor Greg Horner advised jurors during his closing arguments today in Clackamas County Circuit Court. Carl Brent and Raylene Worthington are not "monsters or demons," but they should be held responsible for letting their child die, he said.

The fates of the Worthingtons are now in the hands of 12 Clackamas County jurors.

The couple are charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment for failing to provide adequate care for their 15-month-old daughter, Ava, who died of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection in March 2008.

As Horner showed jurors photographs of Ava taken just moments after her death, he acknowledged the sight could be shocking.

"It's hard to look at, folks, but that's the condition that the child was in as early as Friday - with that God-awful growth on her neck. It's an outrage," he said, referring to an enlarged cystic hydroma that prosecutors said compromised her health.

Horner told jurors that the parents had avoided multiple signs that any "reasonable" person would have interpreted as reason to seek medical care.

"A reasonable person, a reasonable parent, once they become aware of an abnormality in an area as sensitive as a person's neck, the bells go off," he said.

His arguments also directly referenced the Worthingtons' belief in faith healing, a facet of the case defense attorneys rarely touched on during the trial. The defense avoided the subject because it is "damaging and damning" to the claim that the Worthingtons were unaware Ava was gravely ill in the moments leading up to her death, he said.

Before her death, friends and family prayed for her recovery by laying on of hands multiple times. The acts of prayer, as well as overnight stays from both sets of grandparents the night before Ava's death, showed that the Worthingtons were well aware something was wrong with their child.

"Don't be naive, folks," Horner cautioned. "Actions speak louder than words."

Should jurors return guilty verdicts for the parents, they will be the first convictions after the passage of a faith-healing death after the passage of a 1999 Oregon state law that eliminates religious freedom defenses in cases concerning the welfare of a child. The law came in response to a flurry of spiritual healing-related deaths in families belonging to the Worthingtons' congregation, Oregon City's Followers of Christ church.

Horner's remarks followed closing statements earlier in the day from defense attorney John Neidig, who represents Raylene Worthington. Neidig characterized the prosecution's medical expert witnesses as ill-informed because they relied on what he called an inaccurate report from Clackamas County deputy medical examiner Jeffrey Mayer.

Mayer arrived at the scene of Ava's death with an agenda swayed by his association with the district attorney's office, Neidig said.

"Nobody got the full picture, nobody scratched the surface, nobody looked beneath the inaccuracies that were being presented and everyone was going on the wrong path," he said.

Neidig's closing statement continued to challenge the prosecution's medical experts, particularly Mayer and Dr. Christopher Young, a state deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Ava. Young's autopsy methods were faulty and he failed to test for a genetic condition that would explain her small stature and the cyst on her neck, Neidig said.

Seizing upon testimony from prosecution witnesses, Neidig said two medical experts would have drawn different conclusions about Ava's death if they had known that she was "happy" and "active" before her death.

Neidig also mentioned the Worthington family's history of "neck swelling," meant to address prosecution's position that the cystic hydroma on Ava's neck prevented her from breathing and swallowing properly. Horner scoffed at the reference later that afternoon, saying Carl Brent Worthington, who goes by Brent, had failed to mention the history during interviews with investigators, instead saying he "had heard of someone" with one.
Neidig showed Ava as an energetic, healthy baby who was "strong" in the hours before her death. Throughout the trial, the Worthingtons and their relatives and friends testified that Ava had been recovering and playful in the hours before her death.

Her sudden death was caused by a condition that hit her like a "flash flood," Neidig said, borrowing a term that was used yesterday by Brent Worthington's attorney in his closing statement.

Neidig's closing statement had been interrupted by Horner's objections to references to information obtained from the death certificate of a Milwaukie child who died from pneumonia. Earlier in the trial, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Steven Maurer had ruled the death certificate to be prejudicial and lacking foundation. Neidig said he assumed that some of the information was "fair game" because Young had answered some questions about the case on the stand.

With the jury in the other room, Maurer angrily admonished Neidig for bringing up information from the certificate again, calling it a "blindingly stupid move."

"This is something that goes simply beyond advocacy. This simply goes to the heart of our profession," he said.

Maurer later instructed the jury to disregard the information because of a lack of connection between the Milwaukie child's death and Ava's.

"The facts are there," Horner said as he ended. "It's unreal what they did, it's outrageous what they did, and now it's time for the community to set a standard for what is right for Ava."

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