Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 5:35:29 GMT -5
Parole board ponders cult killer -- Lundgren execution set for Oct. 24
A prosecutor described Tuesday how she and other investigators stood in a
Kirtland barn on a cold January night in 1990 and prayed that the tipster
who had told them they would find the buried bodies of 2 adults and 3
children was wrong.
"We waited - hours - and we dug in that barn, and we hoped he was wrong,
and we prayed he was wrong," Karen Kowall, an assistant Lake County
prosecutor, told members of the Ohio Parole Board. "And he wasn't wrong."
Investigators unearthed the bodies of 5 members of a little-known
religious cult on that Jan. 4 night - Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their
daughters, Trina, 15, Becky, 13, and Karen, 7. Each had been bound with
duct tape and shot with a .45-caliber revolver.
The April 17, 1989, murders landed Kirtland cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren
on death row, where he has spent the last 16 years. Barring a grant of
clemency from Gov. Bob Taft based on a parole board recommendation of
mercy, Lundgren, 56, has less than 4 weeks to live. His execution is set
for Oct. 24.
Kowall riveted the board with a surgical presentation on Lundgren's rise
from petty criminal to mass murderer, ridiculing claims by Lundgren's
lawyer, Henry Hilow, that Lundgren's life philosophy has changed on death
row "from an unbending steel sword to one of love."
Kowall also assailed Lundgren's claims that he murdered the Averys because
of a "misinterpretation of scripture" that resulted in a "deific decree" -
an order from God to kill the family.
"The Averys were not targeted because God commanded Jeff Lundgren to kill
them," Kowall said. "The Averys were targeted by Jeff Lundgren because he
didn't like them. He perceived them as a threat to him, and he used their
deaths to solidify this group's commitment to him. He has no remorse for
that."
Instead, she said, Lundgren is merely a vulgar, debauched criminal who
killed, stole from his church, committed adultery and commanded female
disciples to "dance naked in the wilderness" for him to "cleanse
themselves" after the murders.
Hilow disputed her assertions, saying Lundgren anguishes over what parole
board member Peter Davis described as "the multiple layers of horror" of
his crime.
"He believed in judgment," Hilow said, referring to Lundgren's philosophy
after he broke away from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. "It was a philosophy that showed no love, and it was a
philosophy that believed in retribution."
Referring to an interview Lundgren did last week with parole board member
Kathleen Kovach, Hilow quoted Lundgren as saying: "I'm a failure to those
people. I anguish over that. I should have saved the people and not
sacrificed them. I am a wretched man."
The only family member to testify was Renee Webster, Cheryl Avery's niece.
Gently sobbing, she read letters from other family members, including
Donald Bailey, Cheryl Avery's half-brother.
" The memories of his victims and the welfare of society and the demands
of justice all dictate this final act of cleansing,' " Webster read from
Bailey's letter. " My only regret is he has but one life to give.' "
The board will send its recommendation to Taft on Monday.
(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
A prosecutor described Tuesday how she and other investigators stood in a
Kirtland barn on a cold January night in 1990 and prayed that the tipster
who had told them they would find the buried bodies of 2 adults and 3
children was wrong.
"We waited - hours - and we dug in that barn, and we hoped he was wrong,
and we prayed he was wrong," Karen Kowall, an assistant Lake County
prosecutor, told members of the Ohio Parole Board. "And he wasn't wrong."
Investigators unearthed the bodies of 5 members of a little-known
religious cult on that Jan. 4 night - Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their
daughters, Trina, 15, Becky, 13, and Karen, 7. Each had been bound with
duct tape and shot with a .45-caliber revolver.
The April 17, 1989, murders landed Kirtland cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren
on death row, where he has spent the last 16 years. Barring a grant of
clemency from Gov. Bob Taft based on a parole board recommendation of
mercy, Lundgren, 56, has less than 4 weeks to live. His execution is set
for Oct. 24.
Kowall riveted the board with a surgical presentation on Lundgren's rise
from petty criminal to mass murderer, ridiculing claims by Lundgren's
lawyer, Henry Hilow, that Lundgren's life philosophy has changed on death
row "from an unbending steel sword to one of love."
Kowall also assailed Lundgren's claims that he murdered the Averys because
of a "misinterpretation of scripture" that resulted in a "deific decree" -
an order from God to kill the family.
"The Averys were not targeted because God commanded Jeff Lundgren to kill
them," Kowall said. "The Averys were targeted by Jeff Lundgren because he
didn't like them. He perceived them as a threat to him, and he used their
deaths to solidify this group's commitment to him. He has no remorse for
that."
Instead, she said, Lundgren is merely a vulgar, debauched criminal who
killed, stole from his church, committed adultery and commanded female
disciples to "dance naked in the wilderness" for him to "cleanse
themselves" after the murders.
Hilow disputed her assertions, saying Lundgren anguishes over what parole
board member Peter Davis described as "the multiple layers of horror" of
his crime.
"He believed in judgment," Hilow said, referring to Lundgren's philosophy
after he broke away from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. "It was a philosophy that showed no love, and it was a
philosophy that believed in retribution."
Referring to an interview Lundgren did last week with parole board member
Kathleen Kovach, Hilow quoted Lundgren as saying: "I'm a failure to those
people. I anguish over that. I should have saved the people and not
sacrificed them. I am a wretched man."
The only family member to testify was Renee Webster, Cheryl Avery's niece.
Gently sobbing, she read letters from other family members, including
Donald Bailey, Cheryl Avery's half-brother.
" The memories of his victims and the welfare of society and the demands
of justice all dictate this final act of cleansing,' " Webster read from
Bailey's letter. " My only regret is he has but one life to give.' "
The board will send its recommendation to Taft on Monday.
(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)