'Prayer death' trial testimony begins

WAUSAU (AP) - The sister-in-law of the central Wisconsin father accused of second-degree reckless homicide for praying instead of seeking medical help for his dying daughter testified Monday that she feared the family would commit suicide.

Susan Neumann of Merrill, the first witness in the trial of Dale Neumann, said she feared for the well-being of the father's three other children because she could not understand why he didn't rush 11-year-old Madeline to the hospital when the girl was in a coma. She said she worried about him doing something else irrational.

Dale Neumann, 47, is charged in the Easter 2008 death of 11-year-old Madeline Neumann from undiagnosed diabetes. A jury convicted the girl's mother, 41-year-old Leilani Neumann, of the same charge in May. She's to be sentenced Oct. 6.

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

The family believes all healing comes from God.

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. The maximum punishment for second-degree reckless homicide is 25 years in prison.

Susan Neumann testified Monday that she went to police with her theory of a family suicide about three weeks after Madeline died. She wanted to make sure more people weren't hurt.

Asked by defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter whether she really believed the father might kill his other children and his wife and then commit suicide, the witness said, "I wouldn't put it past him."

Susan Neumann said she and other relatives were worried because Dale had told her that he wouldn't have done anything differently in Kara's care.

"At that point, I was pretty much out of words," she testified, acknowledging she did not have a close relationship with her brother anymore, in part because of differences over religion.

Kronenwetter asked whether her fears were an overreaction. Susan Neumann said she went to police because someone needed to speak out for the other children and make sure someone kept an eye on them.

"I don't know Dale and Leilani anymore," the witness said.

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."

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.