NEW YORK
Rome Sentinel
On the day that 19-year-old Lucas Leonard was beaten to death at the Word of Life Christian Church, his mother admitted this morning that the teenager didn’t want to go.
But Leonard went with his family, sat through a day-long service, and then was attacked by church leaders, fellow members and his own family, authorities said.
He would not leave the building alive.
“The last I saw him, he was standing,” said the teen’s mother, 59-year-old Deborah Leonard in County Court this morning.
Leonard pleaded guilty today to first and second-degree assault. She will be sentenced to five years in state prison if she cooperates with the District Attorney’s Office and testifies against the other eight defendants, including her husband and her daughter.
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