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Wesson niece tells court about molestation
Another niece of Marcus Wesson testified in Fresno County Superior Court that Wesson molested her as a young child and later had sex with her so she could have “babies for the Lord.”
Brandi Sanchez, 26, also said she knew that once she heard gunfire coming from Wesson’s home, the children inside were dead.
Wesson, 58, is charged with killing nine of his children inside his central Fresno home on March 12, 2004. He also is charged with sexually abusing his daughters and nieces.
Wesson has pleaded not guilty.
Testimony has revealed that Marcus Wesson was the father of the victims. The mothers include his wife, Elizabeth, daughters Kiani and Sebhrenah, and nieces Sofina and Rosa Solorio and Ruby Ortiz.
Sanchez is a sister to Sofina and Rosa Solorio and Ortiz. The women have already testified in Judge R.L. Putnam’s courtroom that they had sex with Wesson and had his children.
The women’s children were among the slain victims.
Sanchez, who is listed as a victim in the 23-count complaint against Wesson, testified that she ran away at age 17 before she could have one of Marcus Wesson’s children.
Sanchez said her mother, Rosemary Solorio, gave her children to Wesson to raise. Sanchez recalled she was about 6 years old and in the second grade when she started living with the Wesson family.
A year later, Sanchez testified, Wesson started to rub her vaginal and breast areas over her clothes. Wesson called the encounter “loving” because, Sanchez said, he wanted to teach his daughters and nieces “how to be better women” so they could please their future husbands.
By age 14 or 15, Sanchez testified that she was having sex with Wesson, and the dream of having a husband faded because “we thought we were his.”
Sanchez said Wesson would read the Bible to his family and interpret it to his liking. She recalled Wesson spoke of liking multiple wives and used King David as an example.
Sanchez said no one in the household disagreed with Wesson because he would spank them with a broomstick or his hand.
Sanchez testified that when she was fed up with the lifestyle and depressed she ran away while the Wesson family was in the Santa Cruz mountains, where they were trying to hid Kiani’s pregnancy from relatives.
Over the years, Sanchez said she didn’t stay in touch regularly with the Wesson family. But in 2004 she learned from her sister, Sofina, that the Wesson children “were starving.”
She knew it was true because Elizabeth Wesson had been begging relatives for food, clothing and money.
On March 11, 2004, Sanchez said she took noodles, rice and beans and cooking oil to the Wesson home.
The next day, Sanchez testified, she tried to help her sisters, Sofina Solorio and Ortiz, reclaim their children from Wesson. But Wesson and his family wouldn’t cooperate.
Soon after, Sanchez said chaos erupted and she heard two gunshots. Moments later, Kiani Wesson told everyone: They’re gone. They went to heaven.”
Sanchez will continue her testimony this afternoon.
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