DURHAM (AP) — The former leader of a polygamist cult in North Carolina has been sentenced to two life terms for the shooting deaths of a 4-year-old boy he believed to be gay and a woman who sought to leave.
Peter Lucas Moses was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty last year to shooting Jadon Higganbothan in the head because he believed the boy was an abomination. Prosecutors say Moses later ordered the death of 28-year-old Antoinetta McKoy when he learned she couldn’t have children.
Their bodies were found in 2011 by a plumber working at a Durham home previously shared members of the group called the Black Hebrews. Adherents and their children lived together, with Moses declaring several of the women as his wives.
Four others have also pleaded guilty in the killings.