NEW YORK
Washington Post
By Lindsey Bever November 25
The pastor and six parishioners at a secretive upstate New York church have been charged with murder after a teenager was beaten to death during what congregants called a “counseling session.”
A grand jury indicted the seven church members Tuesday, charging them with second-degree murder in the death of Lucas Leonard, 19. The members — including an eighth — were also charged with manslaughter, kidnapping and assault.
Lucas Leonard and his brother, Christopher, 17, were punched, kicked and whipped with a four-foot electrical cord during the hours-long beating that began Oct. 11 after a Sunday night service at Word of Life Christian Church near New Hartford, N.Y., Christopher Leonard said last month in court. Lucas Leonard was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Christopher Leonard was hospitalized with serious injuries.
“It hurt — everywhere,” Christopher Leonard testified in court last month, according to the Associated Press.
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