PHILADELPHIA — A Pentecostal couple who believes in faith healing has been sentenced to three and a half to seven years in prison for neglecting to take their sick son to the doctor.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible were already on a 10-year probation for the 2009 death of their 2-year-old son, Kent, who died of untreated bacterial pneumonia, when their second son, Brandon, died in 2013.
The Schaibles are third-generation members of northeast Philadelphia’s First Century Gospel Church, which teaches it is a sin to call on the help of a doctor.
The couple expressed remorse for violating a 2011 court order in which they promised to seek medical care for their other children as part of their guilty verdict for involuntary manslaughter in Kent’s death. In November 2013 they pleaded no contest to third-degree murder charges in Brandon’s death.
After the couple finish their sentences, they will then face 30 months of probation.
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