Trial starts in killing of LDS wife

BOSTON — Carla Souza was a dutiful member of the LDS Church, hosting dinner meetings at her house, taking care of children in the nursery school and going out with missionaries to spread the word about her faith.

Her devotion, prosecutors said, didn't sit well with her husband.

On May 21, 2006, a bloodied Jeremias Bins walked into the Framingham police station and said he had just bludgeoned his wife and stepson with a hammer, authorities said.

Bins allegedly said he was angry over the amount of time his wife spent with members of the church. Souza and her 11-year-old son, Caique, had been found an hour earlier by police who responded to her 911 call.

"Can you come to my house, please? I have a problem with my husband," Souza had said, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. Then the line went quiet, and police got only busy signals when they called back. Officers went to the home and found Souza, 37, and her son lying in blood on a bedroom floor.

Jury selection began Wednesday in Bins' murder trial. Opening statements are scheduled for Friday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn.

Bins' attorney, Earl Howard, has said Bins' confession was coerced, but a judge denied his request to suppress his client's statements to police. Howard declined to discuss the case Wednesday as the trial got under way.

Prosecutors said Bins, 33, confessed to the killings after taking a cab to the police station with the couple's 5-month-old son, Phillipe. He handed the baby to officers and said, "I'm sorry," according to police.

Bins also allegedly told police he was angry because his wife was trying to persuade him to be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

About two hours before the killings, Bins called members of the Framingham Ward of the church and told them he did not want "you missionaries" at his home any more, according to a police report.

Some members of the congregation told police they knew that Bins did not support his wife's involvement but said they were stunned by the killings. The couple had met through the church when Bins, a native of Brazil, started taking English classes there. Souza, also from Brazil, helped teach the classes. Bins occasionally attended church services with his wife, the baby and Caique, her son by a previous marriage, but he did not become a member.

"I had heard he didn't understand why she would look to do things for the church at times, but no one knew it was to the degree of what happened," said Terry Holmes, the former bishop of the Framingham Ward.

"He seemed like a decent, decent fellow," said Holmes, who married the couple in 2005.