FATAL CHURCH BEATING DId accusation of witchcraft lead to death?

After the attack, the beating victims’ relatives wouldn’t tell officers where to find the injured Christopher Leonard, who ultimately was located on the church’s second floor, the chief said. Both defense attorneys unsuccessfully asked for the charges to be dismissed, saying prosecutors hadn’t submitted sufficient proof to justify a manslaughter charge.

Another witness, State Police Sgt. Todd Grant said Bruce Leonard made admissions about what happened to his son and agreed to write a statement.

The chief of new Hartford police tells NewsChannel 13’s Anna Meiler they believe Lucas Leonard was beaten during a counseling session because he had a desire to leave the word of life church.

Bruce and Deborah Leonard have been charged with manslaughter and were scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon, but the hearing was postponed to next Friday. Christopher was hospitalized in a life threatening condition, but his health was improving.

Irwin further stated that he watched bruce Leonard hitting his son up to six times a belt and hit Christopher.

The next morning, around 10 a.m., a number of churchgoers came to Irwin and said they thought Lucas was dead. He helped load the teen’s body into a van to send him to the hospital. Four belong to the victims’ sister.

An autopsy showed Lucas suffered multiple contusions from blunt-force trauma to the torso and extremities, authorities said.

Additional charges and arrests were pending, police said.

The case was postponed until October 23.

Police said seven children were also discovered in the building and were turned over to child protective services.

“I anticipate, when we go to the grand jury, we will ask the grand jury to consider these charges and other charges against these individuals and other individuals”, McNamara stated. All have pleaded not guilty.

Four other members of the church, which is described as insular and regimented, have been charged with assault over the incident.

There are thousands of small, independent Christian churches around the U.S., many of them following a very strict fundamentalist theology, said David Bromley, a religion professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lucas Leonard, 19, who was fatally beaten, said identified himself the one, and that he wanted church elders to die and that he had considered making a voodoo of a church leader, according to the Times. The two teens’ parents, Bruce Leonard and Deborah Leonard, participated in the beating.

Sarah L. Ferguson, 33, of 2347 Main St., Clayville, was charged with second-degree assault.

The attack, in a sanctuary at the rear of the church, ended when it did – at 10 am the following day – because, Irwin said, “Luke was dead at that point”. Their hearings will be held later. Their bail was set this week at $50,000 each.

The revelation on Friday regarding Lucas wanting to leave his church offered an explanation for why this counseling session had been initiated, but a lot of questions were still unanswered.

The witness heard the pastor at the secretive Word of Life Christian Church in New Hartford tell the congregation Sunday night that someone among them was practicing witchcraft, the paper reported.