Three members of a polygamous religious group are scheduled to go to trial this week in the 1988 slayings of an 8-year-old girl and three men who abandoned the sect.
The trial of William Heber LeBaron, 28; Patricia LeBaron, 27; and Douglas Lee Barlow, 31, was scheduled to begin Monday afternoon with jury selection. Terry Clark, chief of special prosecutions for the U.S. attorney's office in Houston, said the trial could take several weeks.The three defendants - two of them natural children of the late Utah polygamous leader Ervil LeBaron and the third, Barlow, his stepson - face maximum sentences of life without parole if convicted of the numerous federal charges against them.
Ervil LeBaron, who died in 1981 while in prison for killing rival polygamist leader Rulon Allred in Salt Lake County, founded the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God, a radical polygamous sect.
The trio was indicted last summer along with three other group members who are among LeBar-on's 54 children by 13 wives. Two are believed to be living in Mexico, while the sixth pleaded guilty last October and is expected to testify at the trial against his brothers and sister.
The three face charges in connection with the July 27, 1988, shooting deaths of Jennifer Chynoweth, 8; her father, Duane Chynoweth, 31; his brother, Mark Chynoweth, 36; and Ed Marston, 32. The four were gunned down almost simultaneously at three locations in Houston and suburban Dallas.
Duane Chynoweth and his daughter were shot to death in the driveway of a vacant Houston home, while his brother, Mark, was slain at his Houston appliance store. Marston was found in the driveway of a vacant home in Irving.
Authorities claim the victims were killed in "blood atonement," the group's legacy of revenge against the "Sons of Perdition" - members who have abandoned the cult. All three adult victims had left the church.
The three defendants have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, interstate travel to commit murder for hire, tampering with a federal witness and weapons charges.
The indictment was expanded to include alleged violations of the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act and a rare use of a civil rights law that claims the three used force to obstruct a religious observance, Clark said.
Last October, Richard LeBaron, 21, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to tamper with a witness and interstate travel to commit murder for hire as part of a proposed agreement in which he is expected to testify against the others.
Richard LeBaron, who pleaded guilty to charges in the murder of Duane Chynoweth, is set to be sentenced Jan. 26 and faces a maximum life sentence.
The other two named in the indictment are Aaron Morel LeBaron, 24, and Jacqueline LeBaron, 26, both believed to be in Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Ron Woods has said that Aaron LeBaron took over the cult after his father's death in Utah State Prison. He and Jacqueline LeBaron are accused of staying in Mexico and masterminding the killings that allegedly were carried out by the other four.