PAINESVILLE, Ohio, March 30 (UPI) -- A former follower of Ohio religious cultist Jeffrey Lundgren has been released on parole after serving 20 years for helping Lundgren commit murder.
Richard Brand was the only eyewitness to describe the killing of Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three daughters, The News-Herald of Willoughby reported. Lundgren, who was executed in 2006 for the crime, was angry at Avery, a follower he had decided was disloyal.
Brand admitted tying up the Averys before they were shot. Former Lake County Prosecutor Steven LaTourette said in 1994 after Lundgren's trial that Brand's testimony was critical to the conviction.
"While these were horrible crimes, there was a difference between the defendants -- not just in culpability but in whether or not they cooperated," LaTourette said recently.
Brand was a civil engineer who joined Lundgren, a former member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and was living at Lundgren's farm in Kirtland, Ohio, when the Averys were killed.
Lundgren's wife, Alice, was sentenced to life in prison for her part in the killings.
