Cult leader will be executed

WKYC, Cleveland/October 2, 2006

Columbus -- Convicted killer Jeffrey Lundgren has been denied clemency by the Ohio Parole Board.

He will be executed on October 24th at the Lucasville Penetentiary.

In a clemency hearing September 26th, Lundgren's attorney Henry Hilow had argued that his client deserves a break.

"[He] Goes to bed crying that this thought is with him, and that they are in his prayers," Hilow said about Lundgren.

Lundgren is referring to the Avery family.

Dennis Avery, his wife Cheryl, and their three young daughters, Trina, Rebecca, and Karen were all shot to death in a barn outside Kirtland, Ohio on April 17, 1989.

At his trial in Lake County Common Pleas Court, Lundgren told the jury "The scripture says and I taught it over and over and over -- No unclean thing can come into his kingdom. None."

At the clemency hearing in Columbus last week, the eight members of the parole board clearly were not in the mood for excuses.

Board member Sandra Mack doubted that Lundgren killed for religious reasons.

"In Mr. Lundgren's case, his selfish monetary gain appears to be the primary factor," Mack said.

Kathleen Kovach, the state appointed victim's representative on the Parole Board met with Lundgren two weeks ago in prison.

"How do you feel Mr. Lundgren, knowing you slaughtered five people, three of them young children?" Kovach asked.

"Burdened" was his only reponse, claimed Kovach.

Lundgren's attorney disagreed and responded "more importantly, he said he felt like a wretched man. He had failed the family."

Lake County Assistant Prosecutor Karen Kowall pointed out that Lundgren was a calculating cold blooded killer.

"[Lundgren] took Dennis Avery out, took his credit card and bought the gun that killed him," Said Kowall. "And he thought that was pretty funny."

Cheryl Avery's niece, Renee Webster, still remembers getting the horrible news 17 years ago, when the bodies were brought out from the barn . one by one. She says her family is still devastated.

Reading a letter to the Parole Board from a family member, Webster said that, "there is only one sure way to know that this will never happen again. To be sure his life is forfeited for the terrible deeds he has done."

"If his sentence were commuted to life in prison, that someday, someone will forget what he has done, and he may be turned loose on society," Webster added. "It must be made certain this can never happen."