Sect couple 'starved toddler to death'
A religious sect member and his wife slowly starved their infant son to death as he cried horrifically, a prosecutor said today as the man’s murder trial opened.
Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea said Jacques Robidoux kept extensive notes of baby Samuel’s drawn-out death, which Shea said began after another sect member received a religious prophesy.
‘‘By the end of Day One, he writes that his wife, Karen, cannot bear what has happened because Samuel is crying so much,’’ Shea told the jury in Taunton, Massachusetts.
The boy died two months later, in April 1999, three days before his first birthday. His body was found buried alongside his newborn cousin in a remote state park.
Jacques Robidoux, 29, is charged with first-degree murder. His wife faces a separate trial on a charge of second-degree murder.
Shea told the jury in his opening statement that the couple did nothing as Samuel went from being a healthy 10-month-old boy who had just taken his first step to an emaciated baby who could barely roll over.
‘‘Day after day, week after week, in the face of the horrific crying, in the face of the radical weight loss... Jacques Robidoux and his wife Karen continued to do what they knew was killing their son,’’ Shea said.
Shea said the baby was only receiving trace amounts of breast milk because Karen Robidoux had recently become pregnant with another child.
Michelle Robidoux Mingo, the baby’s aunt, faces a separate trial on charges of being an accessory to assault and battery on a child for allegedly suggesting the idea of withholding food from Samuel.
Jacques Robidoux asked Judge Elizabeth Donovan if he could represent himself, saying he worried that his lawyer might play into stereotypes. The judge rejected his request.
In a handwritten motion to the judge, Robidoux said he believes the district attorney’s office does not have jurisdiction over him because he and his wife have ‘‘declared their independence and expatriated themselves.’’
