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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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LA minister goes to trial for allegedly killing wife, daughter
Tuesday July 22, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) A minister who aimed to be part of a
``mega-church'' killed his wife and his 7-year-old daughter because
they were weighing him down, prosecutors said Monday.
Henry Hayes, 38, of Los Angeles had a $160,000 insurance policy
that would be paid if his wife, Vangela, and his daughter, Teanna,
died, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace said during opening
statements.
Hayes is accused of killing his wife and his daughter with a
shotgun in August 1999. If convicted, he could face the death
penalty.
Prosecutors said Hayes planted evidence, including a love note
to his wife, around the house after the slayings to make it appear
someone else killed them.
Authorities said Hayes, a minister at a Long Beach church, also
was engaging in multiple extramarital affairs before the killings.
The family was having financial problems, and Hayes had applied
for a pastorship with St. Mark's Baptist Church in Los Angeles that
would have solved the family's financial woes, prosecutors said.
Deputy Public Defender Rick Sternfeld dismissed the
prosecution's contention that Hayes killed his wife and daughter
for money. Sternfeld said it was Hayes' wife that took the
insurance policy out two years before she and her daughter were
killed.
``Mr. Hayes had nothing to do with this crime,'' Sternfeld said.
You're looking at an innocent man.''
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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