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Closing arguments expected Friday in Branch Davidian trial

FBI agents survey the damage after the fire at the Branch Davidian compound in April 1993

July 13, 2000
Web posted at: 6:47 p.m. EDT (2247 GMT)

WACO, Texas (CNN) -- Closing arguments are expected to begin Friday in the Branch Davidian wrongful death lawsuit after attorneys from both sides rested their cases on Thursday.

The $675 million civil lawsuit claims the government was responsible for the deaths of sect leader David Koresh and about 80 of his followers in the 1993 seige on the Branch Davidian complex.

A five-member jury is acting as an advisory panel to U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, who will deliver a verdict in the case.

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Government attorneys claim the Davidians started the fire that burned their compound to the ground.

Several children who were in the Branch Davidian compound on the final day of the 1993 siege were shot and at least one was stabbed, according to autopsy reports presented by government attorneys Thursday.

The attorneys read the results of 21 autopsies on adults, children and one infant, some still unidentified, whose remains were recovered from the complex after it was engulfed in flames. Twenty died of gunshot wounds. One toddler died of a stab wound to the chest.

The government presented the findings as further proof that cult members were suicidal and started the fires on April 19, 1993, that burned the compound to the ground.

Cult survivors and relatives are suing the government, saying the members were not suicidal and that the government shares responsibility for the deaths of some 80 people on the final day of a 51-day standoff.

Among other things, the plaintiffs have argued that FBI tanks caused or contributed to some of the three fires that swept the building.

On Wednesday, government fire expert James Quintiere testified that the three fires that eventually enveloped the compound all began within a two-minute span and were probably set by cult members.

Last August, the FBI acknowledged firing a "very limited number" of pyrotechnic rounds during the operation, after years of publicly denying that any potentially incendiary devices were used.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California
Branch Davidian
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