Free Republic

The city of Fresno has sold a vacant lot that was the site of a 2004 mass murder to the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Calif. - Marcus Wesson, the domineering patriarch of a large and incestuous clan, was convicted Friday of murdering nine of his children, whose bodies were found in a bloody pile last year at the end of a police standoff. Wesson, 58, could get the death penalty. The jury took more than two weeks to find Wesson guilty on nine counts of first-degree murder. He was also convicted on all 14 counts of raping and molesting seven of his underage daughters and nieces. The defense had argued that Sebhrenah Wesson, 25 — the oldest to die — killed herself as well...

Marcus Wesson - Accused of killing and Molesting his Nine children is Convicted on 23-counts of murder and child molestation

FRESNO, Calif. (Reuters) - A Californian accused of killing nine of his children and grandchildren engaged in incest and polygamy and admired a deceased cult leader, prosecutors said at the start of his trial on Thursday. Authorities allege Marcus Wesson, 58, fatally shot seven of his children and two of his grandchildren, aged 1 to 26, inside his Fresno, California, home a year ago. He fathered all victims through incest and polygamy with daughters and nieces. The charges make Wesson eligible for the death penalty in the worst mass killing in Fresno in California's agriculture-rich Central Valley. Defense lawyers told...

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man charged with the shooting deaths of nine of his children. Marcus Wesson, a domineering patriarch who allegedly controlled his family with religious teachings, incest and threats of mass suicide, could be put to death if convicted. About 2,200 potential jurors have been summoned to appear in Fresno County Superior Court for a process that is expected to take about a month. "I'll be looking for jurors who will refuse to lower the burden of proof in the face of enormous publicity and community sentiment," Wesson's public defender,...

Marcus Wesson had 16 children. He stayed home to tinker with a bus and boat, and to educate the children. His wife and older daughters went to work. When they were with him in public, the women were quiet. On March 12, nine members of his family, ages 1 to 24, were shot in the face in their Fresno, Calif., home. Wesson, 57, has been charged with multiple counts of murder. Local school officials found no record of contact with the family. Home schooling isn't recognized as an option in California law, so responsibility for oversight is ``very muddy,'' said...

FRESNO – Marcus Wesson devised a plan nearly a decade ago for his children to kill themselves if authorities came to retrieve the clan, according to a police detective testifying at a preliminary hearing on charges Wesson murdered nine of his kids. Wesson maintained strict control over his many children and would inflict “weeklong spankings” if they broke his rules, which included not talking to men outside of the family, Fresno homicide detective Carlos Leal testified that one of Wesson’s adult daughters told him. The 20-year-old girl said the family was forced to study the King James Bible twice a...

<p>FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A man suspected of murdering nine of his family members apparently was involved in polygamy and incest, fathering two of the victims with his own daughters, police said Saturday.</p> <p>The bodies of six females and three males, ages 1 to 24, were found tangled in the back room of Marcus Wesson's home Friday. Fresno's largest mass slaying ever quadrupled its homicides for the year in a single day and disturbed officers so much that some immediately needed counseling.</p>

FRESNO, Calif. March 13 — Police discovered nine bodies intertwined in a pile of clothes at a Fresno home and 10 coffins stacked along a wall, and were trying to determine if some ritual was involved in the slaughter. A 57-year-old man surrendered to police after walking out of the house covered in what appeared to be blood. The victims were seven children ranging in age from 1 to 8, a 20-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl. All were thought to be the children of Marcus Wesson, whom police handcuffed following a brief standoff. Authorities said Saturday that Wesson had...

Bodies of seven children age 8 and younger are discovered after Marcus Wesson, 57, surrenders and is arrested after a 2-hour standoff. Police were called in during a standoff at a home at Weber and Hammond where nine people were found dead inside. Jerry Dyer, Fresno police chief: Police were prevented from entering the house (:22) Dyer: Too early to determine how the victims died (:22) Dyer: The suspect eventually came out of the bedroom and was taken into custody. (:18) John Walker / The Fresno Bee Photo gallery Jerry Dyer, Fresno police chief: Police were prevented from entering the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in Fresno found the bodies of nine people in a home in Fresno, California, following a domestic dispute and a police standoff with a suspect in the murders, the Fresno Bee and CNN reported on Saturday. Police in Fresno, located in an agricultural part of central California, told of finding at least four children and three women. Following a two-hour standoff at the house, police arrested Marcus Wesson, 57, on suspicion of homicide. The bodies were found in a bedroom, The Bee reported. Police Chief Jerry Dyer told the newspaper that the women may be...

<p>Bodies of seven children age 8 and younger are discovered after Marcus Wesson, 57, surrenders and is arrested after a 2-hour standoff.</p> <p>At a small home near Roeding Park where authorities found a stack of nine bodies in one room and 10 caskets in another, Fresno police on Friday arrested a man suspected of fathering some of the victims and murdering them all.</p>

Seven People Found Dead in Fresno Home FRESNO, Calif. (AP)--Three women, three toddlers and an infant were found dead Friday afternoon in a Fresno home, and police have arrested a suspect, authorities said. The bodies were discovered after police responded to a call about a custody dispute on the city's west side, police Chief Jerry Dyer said. Witnesses had told police that a man had their children inside the home and refused to turn them over. Police arrested Marcus Wesson, 57, who walked out of the house and surrendered when a SWAT team arrived. The bodies were discovered shortly after...