Beagleys’ fate in the hands of the jury
OREGON CITY, Ore. - The jury in the faith-healing trail of Jeff and Marci Beagley, who are accused of criminal negligence for the death of their 16-year-old son, Neil, will now decide if the Beagleys are responsible for the boy’s death after attorneys for both sides made their closing arguments Friday.
The jury now is tasked to decide if the parents, who are members of the Followers of Christ Church which shuns medical care, acted reasonably when faced with their son’s symptoms.
If the jury believes the Beagleys had no idea Neil was at risk of death, because the symptoms looked like no more than the flu, then they will return a verdict of “not guilty”.
But if they find a reasonable person would have taken him to the doctor because he had a pattern of illness, and a dramatic downturn, then they will return a verdict of “guilty” of criminally negligent homicide.
The Beagleys face a maximum of ten years behind bars if they are found guilty.
The backdrop of the trial is that the Beagleys never took their kids to the doctor because of their belief in faith healing.
“It’s about faith; it’s about trying to be perfect; it’s about trying to not have a lack of faith. That’s why Jeff Beagley is proud of his son, because he held on to his faith to the very end. And Marci didn’t want anything different,” said prosecutor Steve Mygrant. “He (Neil) grew up in a world where medicine is weakness, faith is strength. In Marci’s words, ‘it’s one or the other.’”
“Jeff and Marci Beagley were made out to be monsters,” said Jeff Beagley’s defense lawyer, Wayne Mackeson. “If your kid is in excruciating pain, you take him to the doctor. If the evidence showed Neil was in excruciating pain, you need about two seconds to find them guilty, but that’s not what happened.”
The defense hammered away at the fact that investigators mistakenly thought and announced that Neil was in terrible pain when he died.
While the judge allowed jurors to hear about the prior faith-healing death of Beagleys’ granddaughter, Ava Worthington, he did not allow jurors to hear about the many other children authorities said have died as members of the Followers of Christ church.
It was after Worthington’s trial that one juror in that case said he didn’t vote to convict her parents of serious crimes because he wasn’t allowed to know about the other deaths.
Jurors in the Beagley case will have the same limited perspective in deciding whether the parents acted unreasonably in Neil’s care. The judge said he won’t allow the jurors to hear about the other children who have died because it’s prejudicial.
Marci Beagley’s attorney Steve Lindsey emphasized whether the Beagleys’ behavior violated the law.
“The law is whether what they did is a gross deviation, whether it’s outrageous,” he said.
Prosecutor Greg Horner argued that jurors have to send a message.
“You put a stop to this,” Horner said. “You tell the Beagleys this is not acceptable behavior. It’s not unfortunate events; it’s criminal. You’re the only ones who can do it.”
The jurors got the case late in the day and went home. They will be back for deliberations on Monday.