Clergy members who are facing murder charges in the case of an eight-year-old girl have told a judge that they did not conspire to prevent her from receiving the diabetes medication that she needed.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs passed away at her family’s Toowoomba home on January 7, 2022, after going six days without her type-1 diabetes insulin shots.
Toowoomba is located west of Brisbane.
After seven weeks of prosecution evidence in a judge-only trial before Justice Martin Burns, the parents of Elizabeth and twelve other defendants began delivering their closing speeches today in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
In his closing statement, 34-year-old Lachlan Stuart Schoenfish told Justice Burns, “we believe in God above medicine.”
He is charged with manslaughter.
Jason Richard Struhs, 52, Elizabeth’s dad, and Brendan Luke Stevens, 62, the pastor of the church that Elizabeth and her family attend, are both facing murder charges.
After being baptised in The Saints in August 2021, Schoenfish came to the decision to withdraw Elizabeth’s insulin on his own, thus he never urged Struhs to do so.
“Despite what the prosecution allege by some persuasion or manipulation of us towards Jason to do or not do anything, Jason was given power by God to believe in God,” said Schoenfish.
Ten other members of the congregation, including Elizabeth’s mother Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, were also tried on charges of manslaughter.
Without entering a plea, each of the fourteen accused has chosen to represent themselves in court.
The prosecution claimed that Schoenfish thought all medication was superfluous, but Schoenfish maintained that he only thought that way about his own medication.
The members of the organisation “definitely have different beliefs about death,” he proclaimed.
“We have faith that she will be revived,” Schoenfish declared.
Justice Burns was informed by his 26-year-old wife, Samantha Emily Schoenfish, that the prosecution had intentionally misrepresented their beliefs.
“I did attend the Struhs’ house to support them … merely as friends and family,” according to her.
To Schoenfish, “that God did heal Elizabeth and showed us a miracle” was the message sent by Elizabeth’s low glucose readings upon early insulin withdrawal.
I thought she was improving.
My reaction was one of awe. “The following morning, she will be sitting up,” she declared.
I was taken aback when that turned out to be false. I have faith in God.
We have not lost faith that the Lord will raise her up.
A 23-year-old woman named Keita Courtney Martin testified before Justice Burns that none of the group members had explicitly urged Jason Struhs to discontinue Elizabeth’s insulin.
In their accusation, prosecutors claimed, according to Martin, she was aware that a diabetic’s death would ensue from insulin withdrawal.
“My knowledge of God negated such an acceptance in my mind,” he added.
Elizabeth “hated” injections, so Sebastian James Stevens, 28, only acted to back her decision to quit taking insulin.
Someone has tried to make us all look like murderers or complicit in some terrible crime.
Stevens defined this as a literary style.
In their statements to Justice Burns, the defendants stated their intention to conclude their final speeches today.
