07/01/2009

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER  / Associated Press

As 15-month-old Ava Worthington's pneumonia worsened, she was given watered-down wine and members of her parents' church used faith-healing rituals at her bedside. But there was no thought of calling a doctor, according to an interview played at the parents' manslaughter trial on Wednesday.

Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington of Oregon City are members of the Followers of Christ Church and are accused of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the March 2008 death of their child, Ava.

Detectives interviewed the parents the night Ava died of pneumonia, and the interview was played in court Wednesday.

During the interview, Worthington said members of the church had gathered at the home but no one considered calling for a doctor.

"I don't believe in them," said the 29-year-old Worthington.

Worthington said of the church members who came to the house: "They all knew that she was not doing too good."

He described his daughter's final hours as ones of prayer, application of ointment and laying on of hands by church members. The girl was also given watered-down wine, he said on the tape.

He said people in the room with the girl "kept her stirred up to keep her breathing. We moved her around."

The girl had a cyst-like growth on her neck, but one church member recalled someone having a growth like that and he survived, Worthington said in the interview. Prosecutors say Ava's growth was caused by her lymphatic system struggling against infection.

At the end of the taped interview, Worthington told detectives: "I suppose you've never seen anything like this."

The trial opened on Monday, with lawyers for the parents saying the couple thought the girl was getting better as they and other members of the church went through faith healing rituals.

It is the first case brought under Oregon's 1999 law that rejects a religious defense for most abuse cases and was drafted mostly in response to groups such as the Followers of Christ.