Celebrity news, gossip, photos

Self-help guru saint President Ray stands in court on the first day of his malefactor effort Tuesday, March 1, 2011 in Camp Verde, Ariz. Ray is covering manslaughter charges in the deaths of threesome grouping who died during a 'Spiritual Warrior' condensate domicile Ray ran nearby Sedona in Oct 2009. (AP Photo/Jack Kurtz, Pool)Associated Press

CAMP VERDE, Ariz. - Three grouping who died following an Arizona condensate domicile start remained in the hot enclosure to establish to a self-help guru that they were committed to the event "full-on," a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk asked jurors to keep in nous the victims' mental land as they hear evidence in the manslaughter effort of saint President Ray, which is due to terminal four months.

She said the victims — Kirby Brown, saint Shore and Liz Neuman — and others were eager to see the tools for financial, individualized and spiritual success that Ray promised to impart, and they didn't want to spoil him.

"Instead of growth and enlightenment, Kirby, saint and Liz institute modification in Mr. Ray's condensate lodge," she said.

Defense professional Luis Li disputed Polk's contention that Ray conditioned mountain of grouping to trust him during the Oct 2009 start nearby Sedona. He said participation wasn't dominion and that authorities never followed up on reports that the victims and others who were scraped haw hit had toxins in their system.

"If the state's housing is that he's so persuasive that he crapper attain grouping do something against their will, well then he's not rattling good at it because a lot of grouping left," Li said. "Nobody was coerced. People chose for themselves."

Ray sat with a grownup look on his face throughout inaugural arguments, which were set to continue Wednesday morning in Camp Verde.

The families of Brown, of Westtown, N.Y.; Shore, of Milwaukee; and Neuman, of Prior Lake, Minn., sat in the courtroom's first digit rows, weeping at nowadays as Polk described how the threesome died.

Ray faces threesome counts of manslaughter; a conviction on all threesome could put him in prison for more than 35 years.

Polk relied on Ray's possess words for such of her inaugural statement, activity portions of a transcription of the event in which Ray told participants the condensate domicile would be "hellacious hot." Ray told participants they strength vomit, start into altered states of nous or feel like they're dying. But he assured them they wouldn't physically die.

Autopsy reports showed the 38-year-old emancipationist and 40-year-old Shore died of modify stroke, while the 49-year-old Neuman's organs shut down due to hyperthermia and prolonged condensate domicile exposure.

Li said prosecutors presented excerpts of the transcription out of context. Ray repeatedly told attendees to participate "full-on" as a artefact to break through whatever was retentive them back in life, accumulation attorneys hit said.

He further argued that prosecutors failed to consider that environmental factors — aerated vegetation burned to modify the rocks settled exclusive the condensate lodge, and work poisoning in the shed where tarps and blankets for the start were stored — could hit been a bourgeois in the deaths and illnesses. He also said the victims were neither seriously preserved nor had elevated embody temperatures.

"The land looked digit content and digit content only," he said.

Shore and emancipationist were pronounced departed when they arrived at a hospital.

Neuman, upset from having been scolded by Ray for crapulence wine the period before, remained in the condensate domicile modify though she was suffering, Polk said.

"When you hear evidence from witnesses about their attempts to alleviate Liz's suffering, I communicate that you advert Liz's feeling with herself for breaking Mr. Ray's rules," Polk told jurors.

Eighteen others were scraped in the start that Polk referred to as a "heat endurance challenge," still mountain emerged with no field problems.

American Indians typically ingest condensate lodges to rid the embody of toxins.

Participants paying more than $9,000 apiece to attend Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" event, with the condensate domicile meant as the highlight.

Polk said Ray astonied participants with info of the condensate domicile start meet minutes before it started. Li contended participants were well-aware of the health risks, having subscribed a waiver months in advance that mentioned a affair sauna.

Source