Dale Neumann Found Guilty

Dale Neumann, 47, was found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide - just like his wife, Leilani Neumann - in the death of his 11-year-old daughter Kara Neumann.  They were both accused of failing to provide their daughter with proper medical care. They decided to pray for the sick little girl rather than getting her the medical attention she so badly needed.

"If I in a moment of crisis and in a moment of time, I went to anyone else but the Lord, it would not have been favorable to God," Dale Neumann said. "It would have been idolatry and sin because it is disobedience."

Madeline Kara Neumann of Weston, Wisconsin died of diabetic ketoacidosis in March 2008. For background details on this case click here and here.

During the trial, Dale Neumann took the stand in his own defense. He defended his actions by reading scripture to the court. He believed that Jesus never went to the doctor and that going to the doctor would be putting God second. It was clear that he did not think he made the wrong decision.

"If I go to any other source that's idolatry, I'm putting something else in the place of God. That is idolatry. That is sin." - Dale Neumann.

During the trial the prosecution contended that Dale Neumann recklessly killed the youngest of his four children by ignoring her deteriorating health. They claimed the girl was too weak to speak, eat, drink or walk and that Neumann had a legal duty to take her to a doctor.

Ariel Neff, Leilani Neumann's former sister-in-law, testified that she made three calls to the Marathon County Sheriff's Department on March 23, 2008, trying to get medical help to the girl on the day she died.

"My sister-in-law is very religious and is refusing to take her daughter to a doctor," Neff said in a recorded call that was played for the jury. "She believes in faith instead of doctors."

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Wisconsin involving faith healing in which someone died and another person was charged with a homicide.

Emergency workers who rushed to the home testified Monday that the girl wasn't breathing and had no pulse, and that all repeated efforts to revive her failed. She looked malnourished, pale and "skeleton-like," paramedic Hayden Prausa said.

Hospital emergency room Dr. Choon P'ng said the girl reminded him of a cancer patient and that he had never treated anyone with such an advanced case of diabetes.

Both the Prosecutor, Asst. Marathon County D.A., Lamont Jacobson and the Defense Attorney, Jay Kronenwetter, make their closing arguments before the court in the clip below:



The trial itself lasted a week and the jury deliberated for 22 hours. They -  at one time claiming to be deadlocked - would ask the judge several times for clarification and direction before coming to the unanimous decision of guilty.



Both Dale Neumann and his wife Leilani Neumann are due back in court on Oct. 6 to appear before Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard who will decide their fate. They both face up to 25 years in jail.

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UPDATE: 10/6/09

Judge Vincent Howard said the Neumanns were "very good people, raising their family who made a bad decision, a reckless decision."

Dale and Leilani Neumann were each sentenced to six months in jail and ten years of probation.

See video clip here