A wife and a daughter of late polygamist Ervil LeBaron have been sentenced to nine-year prison terms each for their roles in the operation of a Phoenix-area truck-theft ring.
Linda Rae Johnson, 49, and Patricia Monique LeBaron, 25, were sentenced Monday by Stephen Ventre, a temporary judge in Maricopa County Superior Court, after pleading guilty July 16 to two counts of theft.Ervil LeBaron, who had 12 wives and more than 50 children, was founder of the violent Church of the Lamb of God. He died of a heart attack in 1981 while imprisoned in Utah for a 1977 murder.
Members of the LeBaron clan have been blamed by authorities for more than 20 cult killings in the past two decades.
Five of Ervil LeBaron's children two sons, two daughters and an adopted son were sentenced in August 1989 to prison terms ranging from 3 3/4 years to 10 years after pleading guilty to charges of theft.
All of the defendants have been accused of operating a large-scale ring that stole late-model trucks from Phoenix-area residents and drove them to Mexico and elsewhere to sell. They were also accused of crime in Texas.