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Thursday, February 27, 1997

Former cult member testifies about defectors' slayings

By JOAN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - A key prosecution witness in the trial of a cult leader testified Wednesday she was following her religious beliefs and saw nothing wrong with the killing of three defectors from the cult and an 8-year-old girl.

"I don't think I did it with evil intentions," Cynthia LeBaron, 28, said at the trial of her half-brother, Aaron LeBaron. "I thought I was doing a good thing."

Ms. LeBaron, who is in a federal witness protection program and was testifying under a grant of immunity, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a 1992 federal indictment charging her half-brother and others in the 1988 Texas slayings. She has admitted to stalking the shooting victims and giving the go-ahead signal for one of the shootings.

Prosecutors say three men were fatally shot because they were considered "sons of perdition" for leaving the polygamous sect and the young girl was killed because she was a witness.

Ms. LeBaron, whose testimony Wednesday had to be stopped briefly when she broke down in tears during cross-examination by defense attorney Mac Secrest, had testified in the 1993 trial of three half-siblings who are serving life sentences for their parts in the murders.

She said she did not implicate Aaron LeBaron, considered the sect's "grand patriarch," the first time she talked to police in 1992 but did so two days later.

"I didn't want to be like a Judas Iscariot or one of those famous people," she testified. "I wasn't ready."

Aaron LeBaron, 28, is accused of ordering the slayings of Ed Marston, brothers Mark and Duane Chynoweth, and Duane Chynoweth's young daughter, Jenny.

They were shot to death minutes apart June 27, 1988 in suburban Dallas and at two sites in Houston.

Prosecutors say Aaron LeBaron and half-sister Jacqueline LeBaron directed the killings after receiving what they described as a "sign from God." Jacqueline LeBaron remains at large.

Aaron LeBaron is being tried before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on federal charges of racketeering and conspiring to commit murder for hire. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say Aaron LeBaron, who had lived in Mexico since at least 1988, led the sect founded by his father, Ervil LeBaron.

The elder LeBaron, who had 13 wives and 54 children, died in a Utah prison in 1981 while serving time for a sect-related murder.

He taught a doctrine of blood atonement in which defectors of the Church of the Lamb of God, an indirect offshoot of the Mormon Church, were assassinated, authorities say.Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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