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"May 26, 2005, THE PEOPLE v. RICHARD JOHN VIEIRA, SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA, 25 Cal. Rptr. 3d 337, Death Sentence Affirmed on Three Counts; Remand to Trial Court and Reversal of the Death Sentence for one count

Overview: Appellate documents state a jury convicted Richard John Vieira of Stanislaus County of four counts of murder and conspiracy which took place in 1990. Vieira and his co-defendants, David Beck and Gerald Cruz, all lived in a camp where Gerald Cruz served as the leader. Cruz instigated the murders of four individuals from a rival group.

Defendant's sister testified that she lived with Cruz in 1987-1988, at which time Cruz led others in the study of the occult and the performance of supposedly occult rituals that included candles, robes and chanting. Cruz told Young that "to sacrifice your first newborn was the greatest thing you could ever do and that it was 'for the satisfaction of Satan.'"

The defense solicited testimony regarding defendant's cult membership and his incapacity to form the requisite criminal intent. Testimony evidenced that Vieira was a "slave" to other members of the group. Family members testified defendant often appeared to have been "beat up" with black eyes, fat lips and slashes on his arm. According to defendant's diary he had been electroshocked and beat up by members of the group.

A cult expert testified that Cruz directed a cult which had occult and satanic underpinnings, they engaged in various rituals, and defendant was under Mind Control at the time of the crime. Cruz directed the members of the group to read and study the books of Alistair Crowley of whom Cruz believed himself to be the reincarnation. There were also reports that the defendants were part of a Nazi or White Supremacist organization. The court ultimately rejected the defense's argument that the crimes were committed under duress.

The dissenting Judge wrote that he would have reversed the death penalty and acknowledged that at the time of the murders the defendant was a submissive member of a satanic cult led by Gerald Cruz.

"In this case, the evidence shows that defendant acted under the substantial domination of cult leader Gerald Cruz, who controlled every aspect of defendant's life and threatened to kill anyone who did not follow his orders. Absent the pernicious influence of a satanic cult leader, it is doubtful that defendant would have committed murder."

The dissent thought that the defendant was under Mind Control at the time of the crime and noted that the expert explained how cults use isolation, sleep deprivation, punishment, and occult ritual to dominate and control the minds of their members.

March 18, 2005, TRACE ROYAL DUNCAN v. STATE OF ALABAMA, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF ALABAMA, 925 So.2d 245, 2005 Ala. Crim. App. Lexis 78, Affirmed in Part, Remanded with Instructions; 827 So. 2d 838, 2005 Ala Crim App. LEXIS 116, Court of Appeal Reversed the Death Penalty

Appellate documents and news articles state four teenagers, Trace Royal Duncan, 17, Cary Dale Grayson, 19, Kenny Loggins, 17, and Louis Mangione, 16, kidnapped and murdered hitchhiker, Vicki De Blieux, 37, who was traveling to her mother's home in Tennessee. The defendants picked her up and promised to take her to her mother's but instead took her to a wooded area. After she spurned their sexual advances, they kicked and stomped her and threw her over a cliff. Carey Grayson told Louis Mangione that he was going to "sacrifice the bitch." Three defendants then returned to the scene and proceeded to mutilate, cannibalize part of her body, and remove all of her fingers, both to thwart identification, and to keep as souvenirs. The defendants were arrested after Louis Mangione began showing Ms. De Blieux's fingers to friends. Kenneth Loggins and Carey Dale Grayson were sentenced to death. Louis Christopher Mangione and Trace Royal Ducan received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The medical examiner found that every bone in the victim's face was fractured at least once, her skull was broken open with most of the brain separated from it. Large lacerations were found on the back of her head along with extensive bruising on the head, her left and right ribs were fractured, there were at least 180 stab wounds all over her body, two incised wounds were found in her chest and abdomen, her left lung was removed by a knife, there was bleeding of the tongue, and all her fingers and thumbs had been removed. The medical examiner could not be certain what wounds were inflicted before and after death.

The satanic element of the crime was documented in Trace Royal Duncan's appeal and several news articles. Duncan's trial counsel stated that his co-defendants were Satanists and that Mr. Duncan "kicked the victim a few times in the head," and the other co-defendants "returned to the victim's body to mutilate it, stabbing it over 180 times, removing organs and eating them and removing fingers to thwart identification and to keep as souvenirs..." Counsel was able to interject his theory that two co-defendants were Satanists who instigated the murder, committed most of the acts against the victim, and threatened to kill the appellant if he told what happened. He attempted to portray co-defendant Grayson as the older instigator and leader who was a Satanist wanting to sacrifice the victim to Satan. In closing arguments the defense stated that the co-defendants could have committed the murder as a satanic ritual.

The legal history of this case is as follows:

Trace Royal Duncan: 925 So. 2d 245, 2005 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 78; 827 So. 2d 839, 1999 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 224; 673 So. 2d 838, 1995 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 350

Carey Dale Grayson: 954 So. 2d 1141, 2005 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2676; 824 So. 2d 844, 2002 Ala. LEXIS 13; 824 So. 2d 844, 2001 Ala. LEXIS 167; 824 So. 2d 804, 1999 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 261; 665 So. 2d 986, 1995 Ala. Crim. Appl. LEXIS 71

Kenneth Loggins: 771 So. 2d 1093, 2000 Ala. LEXIS 217; 910 So. 2d 146, 2005 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 57; 771 So. 2d 1070, 1999 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 52

Louis Christopher Mangione: 740 So. 2d 444, 1998 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 133; 796 So. 2d. 446, 1999 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2553

News articles report that co-defendant Dale Grayson told newspaper reporters that it was Trace Duncan who stabbed the woman, hacked open her chest and pulled out an organ from her body. The police were told that Grayson was a Satanist who drank the blood of his victim. See "Murder Suspect Claims he's no Satanist," Birmingham News, April 29, 1994; "Grayson Says Friends Carved Woman's Body," Birmingham News, May 5, 1994; "Trial Will Begin for Man Accused in Woman's Sport Killing," Birmingham News, October 29, 1995.

October 21, 2003, ANGLESEY, NORTH WALES, MATHEW HARDMAN, Appealing Conviction for Murder

Overview: News reports state a teenager found guilty of murdering his elderly neighbor and drinking her blood in a vampire ritual was attempting to challenge his conviction. He was jailed in 2002 for a minimum of 12 years following his trial. The jury was told the art student killed 90 year old Mabel Leyshon and removed her heart in a satanic-style ritual in November 2001. His first bid to appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal in early 2003. See "Vampire Killer to Challenge Conviction," Press Association, October 21, 2003.

September 11, 2003, BRASILIA, BRAZIL, Cesio Brandao aka Cesi Favio Caldas aka Sergio Brandao, Sentenced for Murder and Attempted Murder

Overview: News articles report that five influential members of Brazilian society went on trial in 2003 for the torture, castration, and murder of five children, aged eight to 13, whose sexual organs had been removed and used in rites of black magic between 1989 and 1993. Amailton Madeira Gomes, son of a businessman, Carlos Alberto Santos, policeman, and two doctors, Anisio Ferreira de Souza, and Cesio Brandao, aka Cesi Favio aka Sergio Brandao were charged with the crimes. The fifth defendant, 75-year-old Valentina Andrade, a fortune teller and leader of a UFO group called the Superior Universal Alignment, was tried for these crimes but was not convicted.

The five defendants, including Valentina Andrade, allegedly used their influence in efforts to stop the case from going to trial, intimidated victims, and destroyed evidence. The prosecution asked for the trial to be moved to another locale, Para State.

A total of 19 boys, aged eight to 14, were victimized. Five were mutilated and died, three escaped with horrible injuries, six escaped before they were harmed, and five have never been seen again. Some victims had their eyes gouged out, wrists slit, and sexual organs cut off. The two doctors were accused of selling the internal organs of the children and using their genitals in satanic rituals.

Two mutilated survivors, now adults, escaped from Brazil's Amazon region where they had been tied to trees after being doped and castrated. They both identified Carlos Alberto Santos as the man who kidnapped them when they were nine and 10 years old.

Brazil's Special Secretary for Human Rights said the trial had symbolic significance because of the influential professions of the defendants. The trial was seen as a test of Brazil's ability to bring justice to isolated areas where it was suspected the legal system might be under the sway of powerful locals.

Carlos Albert Santos was sentenced to 35 years, Amailton Gomes was sentenced to 57 years, Anisio Ferreira de Souza was sentenced to 77 years, Cesio Brandao was sentenced to 56 years. See "Trial Opens on Ritualistic Murders of Brazilian Children," Agence France Presse, August 29, 2003; "Two Sentenced in Mutilation Murder Case in Brazil," Associated Press, August 30, 2003; "Satanic Sect Leader Denies Charges She tortured, Murdered Children in Brazil," Agence France Presse, November 19, 2003. See http://www.religionnewsblog.com for articles: "Five on Trial for Child Ritual Murders," August. 29, 2003; "Doctor Gets 56 for Brazil Sect Killings," September 10, 2003; "Brazil Jails Occult Killers," Aug. 31, 2003; "Brazil Court Finds 2 Guilty in Mutilation Killings," August 30, 2003; "Doctor Gets 77 Years for Brazil Sect Killings," Sept. 5, 2003. "