U.S. man who prayed while daughter died convicted of homicide

Saturday, August 1, 2009 | 7:42 PM ET

The Associated Press

Dale Neumann, seen in May, 2008, was convicted of homicide in the death of his daughter, 11. (Rob Orcutt/Associated Press)

A Wisconsin man who prayed instead of seeking medical care while his 11-year-old daughter died was found guilty Saturday of second-degree reckless homicide.

Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted in the 2003 death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes.

Prosecutors said the girl couldn’t walk, talk, eat or speak. But instead of taking her to hospital, people surrounded her and prayed while she lay on the floor of the family’s home in rural Weston, Wis. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing.

Neumann’s wife Leilani, 41, was convicted of the same charge in the spring and is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 6. Both face up to 25 years in prison.

Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.

“If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God,” Neumann testified. “I am not believing what he said he would do.”