Murderer Gets Two Life Terms

A judge today sentenced an excommunicated Mormon to two consecutive life prison terms for slashing the throats of his sister-in-law and her toddler daughter in what prosecutors said was a dispute over religion.

A jury deliberated for 6 1/2 hours before telling District Judge J. Robert Bullock that it could not agree on whether to impose a death sentence on Dan Lafferty, 36. Bullock told Lafferty that he would certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murders of Brenda Wright Lafferty, 24, and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica.