Conviction New religious movements El Terrón, Ngäbe-Buglé, Panama · 2021

El Terrón: nine convictions after seven people were killed during a sect’s religious rite

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

members of a self-described religious group

Organization

Iglesia de Dios group in El Terrón

Spiritual nexus

The cited record identifies religious-rite setting, group violence, and confinement as the material spiritual doctrine, practice, authority, or pretext connected to the documented harm. The relevant authority role is members of a self-described religious group.

Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2021-12-03 · jury verdict and sentencing

Trial Court in Changuinola, Panama. Seven defendants were sentenced to 50 years each for the deaths of six minors and a pregnant woman; two other defendants had already received 47-year sentences by plea agreement.

Documented coercion mechanisms

religious-rite setting
group violence
confinement

Primary record

Sources

prosecuting authority sentencing release Public Prosecutor’s Office of Panama, ‘Pena máxima para siete personas por las muertes en El Terrón’ (Dec. 3, 2021).: Panama’s prosecuting authority records the seven 50-year sentences, the two earlier 47-year plea sentences, the seven deaths, and its finding that the killings occurred during a religious rite conducted by members of a sect.
prosecuting authority charging release Public Prosecutor’s Office of Panama, ‘Ministerio Público concluye etapa de investigación en el caso de la secta de El Terrón’ (Apr. 27, 2021).: The charging-stage release identifies the nine defendants, the clandestine grave, the seven victims, the offenses charged, and the defendants’ membership in the group they called Iglesia de Dios.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on New religious movements, not specific to this one case.

ABC News (2005) ''Prince' of Former Cult Commits Murder-Suicide', ABC News, January. Available at: abcnews.go.com (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The documented aftermath of the Children of God's abuse system: Ricky Rodriguez, raised as the movement's 'prince' and heir, 'stabbed his former nanny to death before committing suicide' in January 2005, after videotaping a statement about his childhood: 'How can you do that to kids and sleep at night?' Note: Rodriguez died the same day and was never prosecuted; this entry documents an outcome of the abuse system established in the Ward judgment above, not an adjudication — and his characterizations of individuals are his own claims, not court findings.
Wikipedia (2026) 'Richard Bandler' [summarizing the 1988 Santa Cruz murder trial and acquittal]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Richard Bandler, co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, was acquitted — that verdict leads this entry, which documents a trial, not a guilt. 'In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen... a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.' The trial — and the contemporaneous reporting around it — remains the most extensively documented court event in the history of the human-potential movement's founder generation, and a window into the coercive-influence milieu from which NLP marketing later grew. Bandler was and remains legally innocent of the killing.

Related record

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