Suspect in 1988 Texas polygamist deaths arrested in Honduras, extradited to face charges

Woman faces charges in Texas polygamist deaths

HOUSTON — FBI agents in Honduras arrested the fugitive daughter of a polygamist sect leader wanted in a 1988 quadruple slaying and extradited her to Houston to face murder and conspiracy charges, the agency said Friday.

FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap said a tip led to the capture of Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron on Thursday. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Interpol and the U.S. consulate in Honduras helped to track LeBaron down in the city of Moroceli, the FBI said in a statement.

LeBaron, wanted since 1992, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Malloy Friday. The judge ruled that LeBaron would remain in federal custody and ordered a hearing for next Wednesday to determine whether her detention will continue pending trial, said Angela Dodge, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Houston.

LeBaron told the court she is a Mexican citizen and complained that she was denied due process when she was removed from Honduras, Dodge said.

Dodge said LeBaron did not have an attorney and that she would receive one through a court appointment.

LeBaron has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder; murder; conspiracy to tamper with a witness; tampering with a witness; use of a firearm during a crime of violence; conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs; obstruction of religious beliefs; and racketeering conspiracy, according to the FBI website.

LeBaron, 44, is accused in the shooting deaths of three former sect members and the 8-year-old daughter of one of the adults in Houston and Irving in 1988.

LeBaron’s father, Ervil LeBaron, was the leader of the Church of the Lamb of God. Investigators say the elder LeBaron ordered the executions of rival polygamists in the 1970s. In 1972 he was convicted in Utah of ordering family members to kill his brother, who was said to have disobeyed church laws.

Ervil LeBaron, who reportedly ordered the killing of disobedient church members, died in the Utah state prison in 1981.

Jacqueline LeBaron was among six family members charged in the June 1988 murders.

Three were convicted in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. Another was convicted of ordering the deaths and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The youngest, who was 16 at the time of the killings, pleaded guilty to the child’s death and served five years in prison.

The victims were brothers Mark and Duane Chynoweth, killed in Houston, and Ed Marston, slain in Irving. Duane Chynoweth’s daughter, Jenny, was also killed in what investigators believe was an effort to eliminate her as a witness.

On the Net:

Wanted by the FBI, Houston, www.fbi.gov/wanted/fo/howanted.htm