Category: Marcus Wesson

Family Brainwashed by Dad Struggles to Heal

Marcus Wesson Marcus Wesson committed the worst mass murder in Fresno’s history — killing two adults and seven young children.

Neighbors’ accounts led police to believe that Wesson controlled his family in a cult-like manner, and that he possibly had fathered several of the deceased children with his own daughters and nieces.

Several of Wesson’s sons initially rose to his defense, but in tonight’s ABC Primetime they tell ABC News correspondent Jay Schadler that only now, years after the crime, can they see their father for what he was: psychotic, delusional and narcissistic.

House where Marcus Wesson killed nine of his own children demolished

FRESNO, Calif. – The house where a convicted murderer molested and killed nine of his own children was demolished on Monday. Marcus Wesson, patriarch of the cultlike clan that lived in the home, was sentenced to death in 2005 on nine counts of first-degree murder, and to 102 years in prison for sexually abusing the minors in his care. Police broke into the home in 2004 after a prolonged standoff brought on by a family dispute. They found nine bodies in a back room and ten white coffins in the living room. Since then, the house has stood empty, a

Wesson Diaries, Other Evidence Released

February 3, 2006 – It was the evidence used to convict Marcus Wesson of murdering nine of his children. Now, newly released family diaries are giving new insight into the convicted killer. Last year, Marcus Wesson was sent to death row for the murder of nine of his family members. Now, the damaging court evidence used against him has been unsealed. The newly released evidence offers a window on everyday life at the Wesson household, but defense attorney Ernest Kinney says the boxes of evidence are actually more helpful for the defense team appealing Marcus Wesson’s guilty verdicts and death

Judge Denies Elizabeth Wesson’s Request

February 2, 2006 – A judge has denied a request by the wife of Marcus Wesson to give back hundreds of items seized from the family’s home in Central Fresno. There is an automatic appeal on the way for Marcus Wesson, and some of that evidence could come back into play. But even now, the battle to get the items returned isn’t over. “Imagine if somebody came to your house, took everything you owned and basically sat it in a locker somewhere and said, ‘you can’t ever have this back,’” said Elizabeth Wesson’s attorney Douglas Foster. Foster says some of

Wesson trial costs over $1 million

The trial of condemned mass murderer Marcus Wesson cost Fresno County more than $1 million that could have paid for law enforcement or to fix up parks and rural neighborhoods. The $1,095,479 figure released Tuesday by Wes Merritt, chief county counsel, does not include the expenses for Wesson’s entire time in the jail, nor the cost of the Fresno Police Department’s massive investigation. Wesson was transported Tuesday to San Quentin State Prison’s death row. Sheriff’s officials said Wesson arrived at San Quentin shortly after 5 a.m. The trip from Fresno to the prison, which is near San Francisco, takes about

Judge sentences Marcus Wesson to death

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – Marcus Wesson was sentenced to death Wednesday for the murder of nine of his children, many of whom were born of incest and sexual abuse. “Marcus Delon Wesson, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty,” Judge R.L. Putnam said after lengthy and very moving testimony from several members of Wesson’s family. Jurors recommended the death penalty for Wesson on June 29, after convicting him of nine counts of first-degree murder. They also found Wesson guilty of sexually abusing his daughters and nieces. In Context Nine bodies found

Wesson new trial denied

Judge R.L. Putnam rejected Marcus Wesson’s requests this morning for a new trial or a reduced sentence from the death penalty to life in prison. Wesson, 58, could be formally sentenced to death by lethal injection this afternoon for slaying nine of his children inside his Fresno home on March 12, 2004. Fresno’s worst mass murderer also was found guilty of 14 counts of sexually abusing his daughter and nieces. In Context Nine bodies found in Fresno home; suspect in custody Polygamist Charged With Fresno Murders The Many Portraits of Marcus Wesson Fresno father goes on trial in deaths of

Wesson lawyers ask for retrial, cite orders to jury

Defense lawyers want Judge R.L. Putnam to grant Marcus Wesson a new trial or reduce his death sentence to life in prison, according to Fresno County Superior Court documents made public Tuesday. In a 17-page legal motion, lawyers Peter Jones and Garrick Byers said Putnam didn’t give a fair recitation of the law when he instructed the jury before it began deliberations. In Context Nine bodies found in Fresno home; suspect in custody Polygamist Charged With Fresno Murders The Many Portraits of Marcus Wesson Fresno father goes on trial in deaths of nine children Father convicted of murdering 9 of

Jury Recommends Death for Wesson

FRESNO, Calif. — Marcus Wesson, the domineering patriarch of a large clan he bred through incest, should die for the murders of nine of his children, a jury decided Wednesday. Wesson, 58, was convicted earlier this month on nine counts of first-degree murder, more than a year after the bodies of the victims — ages 1 to 25 — were discovered at the end of a police standoff March 12, 2004, twisted in a bloody pile in a back bedroom of his Fresno home. In Context Nine bodies found in Fresno home; suspect in custody Polygamist Charged With Fresno Murders

Last plea for life of man convicted of killing 9 kids

FRESNO, Calif. – Marcus Wesson‘s defense attorney addressed the men and women who found his client guilty of slaughtering his children and pleaded for his life, saying Wesson was a flawed man and his crimes were inexcusable, but his death would not bring back any of those he killed. If sentencing Wesson to die by lethal injection could “undo the harm done,” Wesson attorney Pete Jones told the jurors on Monday, “your job would be simple.” In Context Nine bodies found in Fresno home; suspect in custody Polygamist Charged With Fresno Murders The Many Portraits of Marcus Wesson Fresno father