TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) Jurors in the trial of a man charged with starving his infant son to death heard how the boy wasted away from hunger in his father's own words, as a prosecutor read excerpts from the man's diary.
Jacques Robidoux, 29, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly withholding food from his son, Samuel, over a two-month period until he died three days before his first birthday in April 1999.
A prosecutor read the jury excerpts from the diary on Thursday while questioning a former sect member who turned the journal over to police in September 1999.
In the journal, Jacques Robidoux describes the decline of his son after he and his wife followed a message his sister, Michelle Robidoux Mingo, said she received from God that the boy should drink only his mother's milk and have no solid food.
Prosecutors say the boy received almost no nutrition because his mother had become pregnant and was unable to produce milk.
In the journal, Jacques Robidoux repeatedly described his wife's doubts and fears as she watched her once-healthy son become emaciated.
''As the day grew on, Satan used the physical sight of Samuel to really get to her. He was obviously losing much weight and becoming much weaker,'' he wrote on March 14, 1999, seven days after the starvation allegedly began.
Three days later, Robidoux wrote: ''Karen woke up with questions of doubt. 'What if he does die and I don't have the faith he'll be resurrected? What if he wouldn't be resurrected because of my not doing what I'm supposed to be doing?' ''
Former sect member Dennis Mingo testified that on Sept. 12, 1999, he found 10 pages of journal entries in his home in Seekonk, where many of the sect members were living.
Asked his reaction when he read the journal, Mingo said, ''I felt sick.''
Prosecutors allege that Michelle Robidoux, Mingo's ex-wife, concocted a vision from God about withholding food from Samuel because she was jealous of Karen Robidoux.
Mingo said he gave the diary to police nine days after he found it.
Jacques Robidoux, through his lawyer, stipulated in court Thursday that he was the author of the journal.
Prosecutor Walter Shea asked Mingo why he waited more than a week to turn over the diary. His estranged wife, Michelle, was living in the sect's home with their children at the time.
''I wanted one last opportunity to pull my wife and children out of the group before I went to the police,'' he said.
He said he visited Michelle twice after finding the diary and urged her to leave, but she refused.
''I was in agony,'' he said.
On cross-examination by defense attorney Francis O'Boy, Mingo acknowledged he was living with another woman at the time he found the diary.
Samuel's body was found buried in Baxter State Park in Maine, alongside the body of his newborn cousin.
O'Boy has said there is no clear evidence Samuel died of starvation and that the boy may instead have died from some other ailment.
Testimony was scheduled to resume Friday with state police Sgt. Robert Horman, the lead investigator on the case.