Three members of a radical polygamous sect were sentenced Wednesday to life in federal prison in the 1988 slayings of a young girl and three men who were gunned down because they abandoned the group.
William Heber LeBaron, 29, Patricia LeBaron, 27, and Douglas Lee Barlow, 31, each were sentenced to four life terms, two 20-year terms and two five-year terms, all of which will run concurrently.U.S. District Judge Simeon Lake also ordered each to serve five years in prison after the other terms are completed. The stiff sentences were not surprising since one conviction, tampering with a witness, carried a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
"They die in prison," prosecutor Terry Clark said after the sentencings.
"For what they did, they deserve that (life in prison); in fact, they probably deserve more than that. But they got the maximum the law will allow," he said.
The defendants also were ordered to jointly pay $134,000 in restitution and $6,000 for each victim's funeral. Lake said the sentences will be served in federal prison in Arizona.
The sentencings marked another chapter in the bloody history of the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God, which was founded by the late Ervil LeBaron.
Patricia and William are natural children of Ervil LeBaron, and Barlow is his stepson. Ervil LeBaron died in 1981 while imprisoned on a murder conviction.