A daughter of a cult leader who drafted a hit list before his death pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to the slaying of an 8-year-old girl and three former members of the Lamb of God religious sect 22 years ago in Houston and Irving.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron, 46, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs. Her plea resolves the final prosecution stemming from the saga of the LeBaron family and the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God religious sect.
She could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $10,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
LeBaron, one of more than 50 offspring of polygamous cult leader Ervil LeBaron, was charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in a 1992 indictment.
She spent nearly 18 years as a fugitive before she was extradited from Honduras in May 2010.
Ben Winslow at Fox13now.com explains that Jacqueline LeBaron
pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs in a series of killings that became known as “the Four O’Clock murders” just days before her trial was supposed to begin. […]
In 1988, four people were killed simultaneously at 4 p.m. in seperate locations in Texas, authorities said. LeBaron and members of her family were accused of the killings against people who had left Ervil LeBaron’s Church of the Lamb of God.
Jacqueline LeBaron was accused of helping to orchestrate the slayings, which were believed to have been carried out under a book written by Ervil LeBaron and smuggled out of the Utah State Prison before he died in 1981.
She said in court the ex-members of the Church of the Lamb of God were being punished over their disagreements on how the sect should be run. “I’m very sorry this happened,” she told the judge before being led away in handcuffs. […]
To this day, some former members of LeBaron’s church still live in hiding, afraid that they are still a target for violence.
Contacted by Fox 13, some former members expressed relief at the plea deal. Others, however, said they continued to worry that someone would pick up Ervil LeBaron’s commandments to kill.
Upon the arrest of Tarsa LeBaron in May 2010, Arizona news station KTVK filed this report, which includes information about Ervil LeBaron — nicknamed, ‘The Mormon Manson.”