Herbalist to serve 4 months in jail in connection with diabetic boy's death

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — An herbalist will serve four months in jail in connection with the death of a diabetic 13-year-old boy in California.

Prosecutors in California said Morrow, who does not have a medical license, claimed he cured his own cancer and that he "practically brainwashed" Edgar Lopez's mother into stopping his insulin, even after he wasted away to 68 pounds.

Channel 9 reported last week that Don Waisenen, of Cocoa, said Tim Morrow also used alternative methods to treat his wife for cancer until she died.

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Waisenen said he believes that claim persuaded his wife to do the same. She was fighting uterine cancer.

"I blame him for keeping her from treatment that she should have had earlier," Waisenen said.

Waisenen said his wife listened to Morrow's treatment advice even as she grew sicker.

"This kind of thing should never, never happen," he said.

At a last-minute hearing Monday, Morrow pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in Lopez's death.

Last week, a jury found Morrow guilty of practicing medicine without a license.

Read: Brevard County man says late wife turned to herbalist for alternative cancer treatment

A judge sentenced him to four months in jail and four years of probation.

He also read Morrow a Watson Advisement, which warns him that the next time he pushes treatment advice that leads to someone's death, he could be charged with murder.

Although the sentence is lighter than what Waisenen hoped for, he said he hopes the case at least helped raise awareness.

"I'm just hoping that by this interview, somebody is helped," he said. "Get a second or third opinion. You need to find out the truth."

Morrow also has to take down his YouTube videos and sites promoting his treatments and pay a $5,000 fine.

He will have to pay the Lopez family for Edgar's funeral expenses.