| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
LA minister goes to trial for allegedly killing wife, daughter
Tuesday July 22, 2003LOS 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.''
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