The Nation - News from Nov. 8, 1988

Three members of a polygamist clan pleaded not guilty in Coalville, Utah, to charges of second-degree murder in the slaying of a Utah corrections officer during a shoot-out that ended a 13-day armed standoff between the clan and law officers. “I’m absolutely innocent, not guilty of all charges,” Addam Swapp, 27-year-old leader of the clan, told 3rd District Judge Michael Murphy. Swapp’s brother Jonathan, 21, and John Timothy Singer, 22, also pleaded not guilty. The three are charged with gunning down state Corrections Lt. Fred House during the Jan. 28 shoot-out. The three and Vickie Singer, mother of John Timothy Singer and Addam Swapp’s two wives, have been convicted on federal charges stemming from the Jan. 16 bombing of a Mormon chapel in Marion and the standoff between the clan and authorities at the family’s farm compound.