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one about the sexual abuse or threats, even after Perez had gone to jail on federal identity theft charges.
• Hughes' death is not the only one within the commune. A 2001 plane crash in South Dakota killed a group member, her 12-year-old daughter and her boyfriend. Hughes' husband was killed in 2006 when a car jack failed and he was crushed in South Dakota. And a 2008 traffic accident killed another group member who had legal custody of Hughes' orphaned daughter.
• On Wednesday, the woman and other witnesses portrayed Perez as a domineering leader who kept a tight rein on his young mostly female followers.
• Kara Lemier told the court that Perez filled a void during a difficult time in her life, saying that she felt she could trust him because he'd accurately recounted a prayer

she made as a child to God.
• "I had nothing else to trust I had nothing else at the time," she testified.
• She described Perez as charismatic, until he was drunk. At that point, she said, he became unrecognizable.
• "His favorite threat to all of us was I am gonna make your worse nightmare come true," Lemier said. "That always hit home to each and every one of us in different ways."
• She told the court she still believed he had the capability to

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