A man charged with killing nine of his children ordered the adult ones to kill their younger siblings and then commit suicide if authorities ever tried to break up his family, one of his daughters told investigators.
Marcus Wesson's nearly decade-old plan to eliminate his family was one of the grisly details revealed Thursday by detectives testifying at the preliminary hearing for the man who allegedly fathered children through polygamy and incest.
PHOTO: AP
More about Wesson's actions and the sexual and physical abuse he used to control his family is expected Monday when the hearing continues.
Wesson preached to his children that he was God, punishing them with a duct-tape covered rod twice a day for a week if they broke his rules, which included not talking to men outside of the family, Detective Carlos Leal testified that one of Wesson's adult daughters told him.
The 20-year-old woman claimed Wesson began molesting her and her sisters when they were as young as 5, Leal said. Officers testified that several of Wesson's daughters and nieces eventually became pregnant by him.
Wesson began talking to his family in 1995 about committing mass suicide if there was a threat the children would be taken away, Leal said.
"He would ask them, `If the time came, would they be ready to die for the Lord?'" Leal said.
Leal said the woman told him that if authorities came to break up the family, "the older ones would kill the children and would commit suicide."
Another detective, Richard Byrd, testified that an adult niece of Wesson's, with whom the man also had a child, told of an even more gruesome plan.
Wesson called the girls "his soldiers," Byrd said, adding that when it was time to commit suicide, the niece said Wesson would order them to "go out and kill the rest of the family members that were no longer in his house."
The woman's mother sent her to live with Wesson when she was 7, and she was molested and forced, along with the other female children, to wear long dresses and cover her head with a veil, Byrd said.
Wesson, 57, has pleaded innocent to charges he murdered a 25-year-old woman and eight of his children ranging in age from 1 to 17.
Police said the woman, who was Wesson's daughter, also was the mother of one of the slain children.
Before Thursday's preliminary hearing, Wesson pleaded innocent to 33 additional charges of sexual abuse dating to 1988.
The new accusations include multiple charges of continuous sexual abuse and forcible rape against females who lived with him. Five of the six victims were under 14 when the attacks occurred.
Fresno police have not disclosed a motive for the murders. Officers were called to Wesson's house March 12 when several of the children's mothers were unable to take their children away from him.
When Wesson emerged from the house with blood on his clothes, he was arrested.
The victims were found piled one on top of another, entangled in bloody clothes.
There have been questions about whether police were at the scene before the victims were killed.
Police testified that two family members outside the home claimed to have heard several gunshots while authorities were outside.
Other relatives claim to have seen some of the victims alive inside the home after police arrived.
Officer Frank Nelson testified he was one of the first to arrive at the house and did not hear gunshots.
But Nelson acknowledged under cross examination that the initial dispatch call mentioned "something about a gun."
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS