FALL RIVER, Mass. – The trial of the reputed leader of a small fundamentalist cult on charges of starving his infant son to death to fulfill a religious prophecy began Monday with jury selection.
Jacques Robidoux, 29, is charged with first-degree murder. The case that sparked debate over religious freedoms and the state's rights to protect children.
The cult, which is primarily in Attleboro, Mass., rejects mainstream society, including modern medicine. It practices home births and schooling and does not recognize the authority of the legal system.
Bristol County prosecutors allege Robidoux systematically starved his son Samuel to fulfill his sister's religious prophecy that the 10-month-old boy should be denied solid food and receive only breast milk. The cultists have claimed they were just following their religious convictions.
Defense attorney Frank O'Boy said because his client's deeply held religious beliefs reject modern medical care, the boy was not taken to a doctor and succumbed to illness.
O'Boy said that as tragic as the boy's death was, Robidoux did not intend for his son to die.
Robidoux's wife, Karen, 26, will be tried separately for second-degree murder. His sister, Michelle Mingo, 37, faces trial as an accessory.
Mingo's religious prophecy led to the boy's death, prosecutors allege. Based on entries in journals kept by the cult, prosecutors said Mingo concocted the "vision from God" because she perceived as vanity Karen's concern over her appearance. Mingo and other women in the cult were heavy set, while Karen Robidoux was thinner.
The Robidouxs allegedly allowed the boy's condition to deteriorate over six weeks in the summer of 1999 during which Karen again became pregnant and was unable to provide breast milk for Samuel.
Prosecutors allege the boy's bones were visible through his skin and that the boy screamed in hunger for days before he became emaciated and died in April 1999 just three days before his first birthday.
Prosecutors said any reasonable person would know that not feeding a hungry child would lead to death. They said witnesses and other sect members said that before his parents reverted to breast-feeding only, Samuel appeared healthy.
The cult secretly buried the boy's body in Baxter State Park in Maine. His skeletal remains were recovered in October 2000 after another cult member, David Corneau, led authorities to the grave.
Corneau's own infant son, Jeremiah, who allegedly died during a home birth, was also found buried there.
Since the investigation into the cult began three years ago, nine members have been jailed for failing to cooperate with authorities. The Department of Social Services has taken more than a dozen children from the group.
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.