Cult leader scheduled for execution

Associated Press/August 24, 2006
By John McCarthy

Columbus, Ohio - Cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren, convicted of killing five people in a suburban Cleveland barn in 1989, is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 10, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

Lundgren, 56, was convicted of shooting to death a man, his wife and three daughters who had moved from Missouri in 1987 to follow Lundgren's teachings. He referred to the killings as "pruning the vineyard."

Lundgren had been dismissed in 1987 as a senior temple guide at the Kirtland Temple managed by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

He had attracted a following, and several people moved with him to a rented farm house in Kirtland, 23 miles east of Cleveland, where they called him "Dad" and contributed money for group expenses.

The victims were Dennis Avery, 49; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and daughters Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7.

On April 17, 1989, the Avery family was invited to dinner, then led to the barn where they were bound and placed into the pit, where Lundgren shot each one. The pit was covered with dirt.

Kirtland police found the body of Dennis Avery on Jan. 3, 1990, leading to the arrest of Lundgren in California on Jan. 7.

A jury found him guilty of five counts of aggravated murder with each count containing two death penalty specifications and five counts of kidnapping.

Lundgren has exhausted all of his state and federal appeals, said Bob Beasley, spokesman for Attorney General Jim Petro.

In an unsworn statement at his 1990 trial, Lundgren told the jury that he and his cult were preparing for the second coming of Jesus Christ, which they believed would occur at Reorganized Church's temple in Kirtland. He said the spiritually unclean had to be dealt with.

"I abhorred the sin that was in Mr. Avery," Lundgren told the jury. "I would say to you that Dennis Avery sought to lead people to false gods. It has been proven to you that the Averys were found in a pit with stones on top. The hands of my people cast those stones."

Lundgren said a combination of messages from the Bible told him to kill the Averys. Cult members had testified that although the Averys were members of the sect, Lundgren considered them to be less enthusiastic about the group's beliefs and activities.

Lundgren's wife, Alice, 55, was sentenced to five terms of life in prison for conspiracy, complicity and kidnapping. The Lundgrens were among 13 cult members arrested in the case. Most lived at the Kirtland farm. Some pleaded guilty to reduced charges.