Parents, church members and half-sister allegedly kill one son, injure other

New Hartford, N.Y.-- You should expect to hear the mainstream media talk about this case in depth because it happened in a church that calls itself Christian.

Two teenage brothers were assaulted on Sunday in the Word of Life Christian Church in upstate New York. One of the boys died and the other was seriously injured after a church meeting became brutally violent. The reason this happened is unclear, but one thing that is, this incident had nothing to do with the teachings of the New Testament.

Lucas Leonard, 19, is the dead boy and his brother, Christopher, 17, the other victim who remains hospitalized. Their parents, Bruce T. Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, have been arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter in Lucas' death. They live nearby where the assault took place, in Clayville, N.Y. 

The couple appeared in court shackled and in matching orange jumpsuits.

According to The New York Times members of the Word of Life Christian Church told police that a counseling session escalated out of hand and led to the fatal beating after a discussion where Lucas expressed his desire to leave the church.

Chadwick Handville, a former member of this church spoke to Fox News on Friday. "It was emotional and spiritual abuse," he said.

Sarah Ferguson, 33, the teens half sister was also arrested on felony charges along with three other church members.

Two of the members arrested, David Morey, 26, and Linda Morey, 54, were released on bail but didn't speak to reporters as they left the courthouse. Their bail comes to $50,000 each and they're due back in court in mid-December.

An extension was granted to the prosecution of Ferguson and a fourth member, Joseph Irwin, because more time is needed since Christopher Leonard remains hospitalized and will be needed to testify. The Assistant DA, Dawn Lupi, said that there is a "strong possibility" those involved in the assaults will face more serious charges. 

The case is scheduled to be heard on October 23rd. All involved have pleaded not guilty. 

I don't know anything at all about the Word of Life Christian Church. However, the New York Times reported that people in the church's neighborhood saw the church as a "constant curiosity: an imposing but tidy former schoolhouse whose occupants kept to themselves, almost never opening their doors or their mouths, secluded behind a closed entrance."

Those crazy Christian right wing nuts, the media might say.

According to The Times, the authorities said the boys were "called into a sanctuary and savagely beaten by at least a half-dozen people, including their parents and older half sister."

"Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness," said Chief Michael S. Inserra of the New Hartford Police Department speaking at a news conference on Wednesday.

Will those who killed the one and severely injured the other, confess to their sins to the cops?

I doubt it.

The defense lawyer for the boys' mother claims she felt helpless to stop the "intervention" that turned into a severe beating. She has not been nominated, nor will she accept if offered, a "Mother of the Year" award.

The Oneida County DA, Scott D. McNamara said at the news conference that "We're not alleging they intended to kill their son. We're just alleging they were trying to seriously hurt their son, and ultimately he died from those injuries."

That sounds quite plausible to me. Just a touch of tough love.

"Everybody in the whole town always said there's something strange going on there; everybody felt that way," Connie Toukatly, 76, said. "But it's so sad that it came to this point."

The town apparently saw something but didn't say something--don't you do that.

Now we simply must wait and read more about how Christians in this country are all crazy psychopathic killers ever since George W. Bush took office, and they need to be stopped.


Somehow gun control may be called into the spotlight, in spite of its absence in this tragic event.


If this were an Islamic honor killing because a young woman refused to cover her head, or wore jeans, or makeup, or refused to marry some Middle East guy she never met, Islam would hardly be mentioned, if mentioned at all.

It should be interesting to follow this story into December.


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