Parents who failed to provide adequate care for child who died sentenced to jail

OREGON CITY, Or. -- An Oregon City couple who failed to provide necessary and adequate medical care for their newborn child pleaded guilty Monday to Criminal Mistreatment in the First Degree.

Blair Edwards, 37, and Taylor Edwards, 32, each pleaded guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court to the most serious charge on the indictment, and received the presumptive sentence for this offense, 30 days in jail. The Edwards were sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

In addition, the Edwards must comply with numerous requirements to ensure their four surviving children receive adequate medical care. The conditions include maintaining health insurance, regular medical check-ups with an accredited pediatrician, following all medical recommendations and providing necessary and adequate medical treatment for their children.

The Edwards are members of the Follwers of Christ church, a congregation that rejects professional medical care and relies on prayer and faith-healing rituals to treat illness or disease.

This was the sixth time since 2008 that church members have been prosecuted in Clackamas County for failing to provide standard medical care for their children. Five of those cases involve children who died.

“Oregon law is extremely clear; parents are required to protect their children. We have and will continue to prosecute members of this church or any other person who fails to seek necessary medical treatment for a child in their care,” said Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth.

The Edwards’ infant son, Hayden, was born June 24 at approximately 6:40 p.m. Hayden appeared healthy for 36 hours until he stopped eating. Hayden had his last feeding at around 6:15 am on June 26. Four hours later Hayden’s lips began turning blue, he was having difficulties breathing and was lethargic.

Approximately one hour later, Taylor Edwards called family members to express her concern about Hayden’s condition. Friends and family members arrived to pray and anoint Hayden with olive oil, a common church practice in the face of illness.

Hayden stopped breathing and cold cloths and body rubs were used to resuscitate him. After hours of Hayden struggling, a member of the church called to report that Hayden had died. At no time did Edwards seek or administer any medical treatment for Hayden.

“We should have reached out for medical care when Hayden went into medical distress,” said Blair Edwards, reading from a prepared statement in court.

“The death of our beautiful and precious son Hayden has provided us a recognition that medical care for a child for preserving life is a value that we understand is important and we also ask the members of our church to take our loss as motivation and ask you to reach out for medical intervention and care for the physical well-being of your children.

"Going forward we will clearly be providing medical care for all our children,” Edwards said.

Hayden’s cause of death was determined to be acute bilirubin encephalopathy due to hyperbilirubinemia, a neurological complication that occurs in newborns when high levels of bilirubin accumulates in the brain. The cause of Hayden’s hyperbilirubinemia could not be determined.

The District Attorney’s Office concluded that the inability to determine the cause of Hayden’s hyperbilirubinemia prevented prosecutors from seeking charges related to his death.

Deputy District Attorney Randi Hall and Senior Deputy District Attorney Rusty Amos prosecuted the cases.

Clackamas County Circuit Court case 24CR21933 (Blair Edwards)

Clackamas County Circuit Court case 24CR21932 (Taylor Edwards)

Chronology of Followers of Christ cases prosecuted by the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office

Members of the Followers of Christ church in Oregon City have been prosecuted and convicted six times in Clackamas County Circuit Court since 2008 for failing to provide appropriate and adequate medical care for their children. Five of the cases involved children who died. These are the cases prosecuted prior to the Sept. 8, 2025 plea and sentencing of Blair and Taylor Edwards.

• 2008: A 15-month-ol girl, Ava Worthington died at her parent’s home in 2008 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Her parents, Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington, never sought medical treatment for her. Carl Worthington was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment and sentenced in 2009 to two months in jail. Raylene Worthington was acquitted on all charges.
• 2008: A 15-year-old boy, Neil Beagley became ill from a urinary tract blockage in 2008 and died two weeks later. His parents, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, said they followed their son's wishes in treating him only with prayer and faith healing. The Beagleys were convicted of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced in 2010 to 16 months in prison.
• 2009: Shannon and Dale Hickman were convicted of Manslaughter in the Second Degree in 2011 and sentenced to 75 months in prison in the death of their newborn son, who died less than nine hours after he was born in 2009. Shannon Hickman gave birth to a premature infant weighing 3 lbs., 6 ounces. Medical evidence concluded that the baby was 31-to 32-weeks-old. The Hickmans decided not to seek medical care. Medical experts in the field of neonatology and home birth care agree that the standard of care for a 32-week-old premature infant is immediate transport to a neonatal intensive care unit. Dale Hickman told police investigators would never have taken his child to the doctor due to his religious beliefs.
• 2010: Rebecca and Timothy Wyland were sentenced to 90 days in jail in 2011 after being convicted of first-degree criminal mistreatment related to their daughter's care. As an infant, Alayna Wyland, developed an abnormal mass of blood vessels that grew across her face and engulfed her left eye. Child protection authorities took custody of the girl in 2010. Her condition improved under court-ordered care.
• 2017: Twin girls were born prematurely to Sarah and Travis Lee Mitchell at their Oregon City home in 2017. The infants had difficulty breathing. Family and friends in the home laid hands and anointed with oil and watched as Ginnifer changed color, went dark. For more than four hours one of the girls struggled to take air into her underdeveloped lungs before dying from Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The Medical Examiner’s Office was notified of the death, a requirement church members agreed to in cases involving child deaths. When the deputy medical examiner learned there was a surviving twin, he advised the Mitchell’s to get immediate medical attention for the infant. The Mitchells did not do so until police arrived and said they would transport the infant to the hospital if the parents refused. The infant spent 11 days in the hospital. The Mitchells pled guilty to Criminally Negligent Homicide and Criminal Mistreatment in the First Degree in 2018 and were sentenced to 80 months in prison.