Daughter tells of pact, but no plan

Fresno Bee/April 18, 2005
By Pablo Lopez

Kiani Wesson told a Fresno jury this morning that her father, accused mass murderer Marcus Wesson, spoke of a murder-suicide pact if authorities came to split up the family. Kiani Wesson, however, said her father's preaching was just "a figure of speech."

Kiani Wesson told police after the killings that her father had spoken generally about the family members killing themselves if Child Protective Services or police came to split up the family. In court today, she confirmed the murder-suicide pact but said "there was never a plan. We never made a plan."

Marcus Wesson, 58, is charged in Fresno County Superior Court with killing nine children inside his Fresno home near Roeding Park on March 12, 2004. He also faces 14 counts of sexually abusing his daughters and nieces. He has pleaded not guilty.

Kiani Wesson said her father started becoming affectionate with her when she was 8. In one-on-one sessions that he called "loving," Kiani Wesson testified that her father would kiss her on the neck and rub her chest over her clothes.

She testified that by the time she was 14 her father started kissing her on the lips and touching her breast and vaginal areas. "He touched me or I would touch him," Kiani Wesson told jurors.

The sessions escalated to sexual intercourse, Kiani Wesson said, because she wanted to be a surrogate mother for her mother, Elizabeth Wesson, who could no longer have children.

Kiani Wesson, now 27, testified that she and her father have two children -- Illabelle, 8, and Jeva, 1. The children were among the slain victims. Her testimony will resume after the lunch break.