NORTH CAROLINA
NBC News
RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. — The lawyer for a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a gay congregant said Monday that he might not call any defense witnesses.
Brooke Covington, 58, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is accused of leading the 2013 beating of former member Matthew Fenner to expel his “homosexual demons.”
After the state called its last witness, defense attorney David Teddy told the judge that he did not plan to call any witnesses. But under questioning from the judge, Covington said she needed to discuss with Teddy during a lunch break whether she wanted to testify on her own behalf.
Covington, who pleaded not guilty, is the first of five church members to face trial in the case. Each defendant will be tried separately.
Fenner, 23, said he was leaving a prayer service Jan. 27, 2013, when nearly two dozen people surrounded him in the sanctuary. He said they slapped, punched, choked and blasted him — a church practice that involves intense screaming — for two hours as they tried to expel his “homosexual demons.”
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