A man is sentenced; a mom reports for prison

Two months after a Philadelphia jury deadlocked on the question of whether to find Daniel Soler guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 killing of ex-girlfriend Tinesha Carr – but convicted him of five other charges – the  West Philadelphia man's immediate future is settled.

On Friday, the District Attorney's office told Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson it would not retry Soler on the first-degree murder count and agreed that he should be sentenced on the other charges: third-degree murder, two firearms counts and two arson counts.

Stacking the sentences on top of each other, Bronson's sentence means Soler will spend 45 to 90 years in prison. It's not the mandatory life sentence required if Soler had been convicted of first-degree murder but the 33-year-old Soler may not notice the difference.

Soler was arrested on April 4, 2012, three days after police found the body of Carr, 33, the mother of two young children, inside a burning car in Feltonville. Carr had been shot several times.

Carr's family immediately pointed police to Soler, who they said had a sometime-violent 10-year relationship that ended two years before. Carr's mother and stepfather began caring for the two children.

After an additional three weeks of freedom so she could celebrate her daughter's 11th birthday, Catherine Schaible surrendered to authorities Friday to begin serving 3-1/2 to 7 years in prison.

In November, Schaible, 44, and husband Herbert, 45 – staunch believers in healing through prayer instead of medicine -- pleaded no-contest to third-degree murder in last April's death of their 8-month-old son, Brandon.

When Brandon died, the Schaibles were on 10 years probation on convictions for involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of another son, Kent, 2, also of bacterial pneumonia. Their probation included mandatory medical care for their seven surviving children.

The Rhawnhurst couple was sentenced Feb. 19 by Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner. Catherine Schaible was initially put in the Philadelphia Riverside Correctional Facility for women but could later be transferred to a state prison. Herbert Schaible, also sentenced to 3-1/2 to 7 years, has been in prison since Brandon's death and is now in the Graterford state prison awaiting assignment to a permanent facility.

Catherine Schaible's surrender Friday followed a hearing at which Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore asked Lerner to impose a longer sentence, a motion the judge denied. Pescatore had asked Lerner to send each of the Schaibles to prison for 8 to 16 years, citing the fact that they ignored their probation after their first child died.

The Schaibles are members at First Century Gospel Church, a Juniata Park primitive Christian congregation that teaches healing comes from prayer and that turning to medicine or doctors shows a lack of faith in God.

In sentencing, Lerner said putting the Schaibles in prison was the only thing would give the seven surviving Schaible children a good chance of living to adulthood. The Schaibles were described as loving, devoted parents who were not a danger unless their children became ill.

Since the Schaibles' arrests last April, the children have been split among two foster families: cousins of Herbert Schaible who are not affiliated with First Century Gospel Church. A social worker testified that the children are well-adjusted, enrolled in a suburban public school system and thriving.