United States: Word of Life pastor and members convicted after a teenager was beaten to death in an all-night 'counseling session'

Proceedings

1. 2016-07-01 · guilty pleas and a trial conviction across the participant set

   Oneida County Court, New York, USA. After nineteen-year-old Lucas Leonard said he wanted to leave the Word of Life Christian Church, pastor Tiffanie Irwin presided over an all-night 'spiritual counseling session' in which he was beaten for roughly fourteen hours and died; his seventeen-year-old brother Christopher was severely injured. Irwin pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault (12 years; paroled September 2025); Sarah Ferguson was convicted at trial in July 2016 of manslaughter and assault (25 years); the brothers' parents pleaded guilty to felony assault (10 and 5 years); other participants were also convicted.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• closed congregation's disciplinary session over a member attempting to leave
• roughly fourteen hours of beating framed as spiritual counseling