Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406200113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Medium
Three other followers of doomsday preacher David Koresh received more lenient sentences, ranging from five to 20 years, for weapons violations that led to a cataclysmic siege at their Waco compound.
None of the eight Davidians apologized for the crimes, U.S. District Judge Walter Smith said when he imposed the sentences. He reminded them of the weapons they used, the agents left dead on Feb. 28, 1993, and the inferno that ended a 51-day standoff.
Koresh and 78 other people died in the fire that flattened the cult's refuge. Sixteen agents were wounded and six Davidians died in the gun battle between the cult and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
``The evidence from this trial has not faded from my memory. Certain images are clear,'' Smith said. ``I remember evidence the jury didn't see, evidence I ruled was too gruesome.''
Among the evidence he kept from the jury were pictures of the agents' bodies.
``On Feb. 28, 1993, an American tragedy of epic proportions took place,'' Smith said, adding that mistakes by government officers were not questions before his court.
On Feb. 26, jurors in the seven-week trial cleared all 11 defendants of the most serious murder and murder conspiracy charges. Three were acquitted of all charges, five were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and three of weapons charges.
Smith ruled all eight defendants would be responsible for $1.31 million in restitution to the families of the slain agents and to the government.
by CNB