
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                    TAG: 9406180212 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A8    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940618                                 LENGTH: SAN ANTONIO

JUDGE SENTENCES CULT MEMBERS TO 40 YEARS IN KILLING OF AGENTS

{LEAD} Swayed by evidence so grisly he wouldn't let the jury see it, a judge sentenced five Branch Davidians to the maximum 40 years in prison Friday for the deaths of four federal agents.

Three other followers of doomsday preacher David Koresh received more lenient sentences for weapons violations that led to a cataclysmic siege at their Waco compound.

{REST} None of the eight Davidians apologized for their 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 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.

The Davidians showed no emotion when they were sentenced.

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.

{KEYWORDS} SENTENCING SENTENCE BRANCH DAVIDIANS by CNB