The leader of a polygamous cult goes on trial this week, some four years after his indictment on charges of plotting the murders of four former sect members in Texas nine years ago.
Aaron LeBaron, 28, was extradited from Mexico last April. The 1988 killings in which he is accused, including the death of an 8-year-old girl, occurred within minutes in suburban Dallas and at three sites in Houston.Jury selection began Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. The trial is expected to take at least a week.
The 1992 indictment against LeBaron includes charges of conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with a witness, conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs and weapons violations.
If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Clark declined to discuss the case, and attorneys for LeBaron did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press.
The case centers on the shooting deaths of Ed Marston, brothers Mark and Duane Chynoweth, and Duane Chynoweth's daughter, Jenny.
Authorities say the men were killed because they were considered "sons of perdition" for leaving the sect, while the girl died because she was a witness to her father's slaying.
LeBaron, who had lived in Mexico since at least 1988, led the Church of the Lamb of God, which had been founded by his father, Ervil LeBaron, in 1971.
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.
Aaron LeBaron and his half-sister, Jacqueline, directed the Texas slayings after receiving what they described as a "sign from God," prosecutors say.
Mark Chynoweth, 36, was gunned down in his Houston appliance store. His 31-year-old brother Duane and niece, Jenny, were shot in a Houston driveway as Duane Chynoweth delivered a washing machine.
Marston, 32, was found dead in the driveway of a vacant home in Irving.