The Devil and Doyle Davidson

"I don't think he liked me too much," Thomas told the detective. After yet another scolding from Thomas about Dena's medications, John told her, "Don't push me." John later told Dena, "Maybe something would happen to Carolyn."

Things like that occurred in Doyle Davidson's world. Davidson tells a story about God intervening in 1974 when he was preparing to go to Israel with a religious group. When Davidson couldn't come up with the money, another man put in his place abruptly died. Davidson got to go. Why God didn't provide the ticket instead of sending the grim reaper is unclear.

The turmoil at Water of Life began bubbling to the surface the summer after Maggie's birth. In April 2004, Davidson shocked his inner circle by declaring that, 17 years earlier, God had given him Lisa Staton as his wife. Most of them accepted it, but not without a fight, Davidson says. "They struggled, every one of them," he says. The preacher would later share the news with his television audience.

Davidson claimed his marriage to Patti was in the flesh and his marriage to Lisa, a vivacious brunette at least 20 years younger than him, was pure, "of the spirit."

Core members accused Davidson of adultery and called for him to repent; some left the church.

In June 2004, Davidson announced that God had directed him to give away his Fairfield house, appraised at $227,000. A few weeks after Maggie's murder, he would purchase a big two-story house in Plano only a few blocks from the Statons. Both the home and its elaborate furnishings were paid for by the ministry. Davidson later posted photos of the showcase home on the Internet, as if to tell Lisa her nest was ready.

The relationship boiled into the public eye on September 9, 2004. That's when Davidson went to the Statons' Plano home and demanded that Lisa come live with him. According to a police report, her husband discovered Davidson sitting on top of Lisa, his hands around her throat, trying to cast out the Jezebel spirit so that she would obey him. The Statons called police. Davidson took a swing at JR, according to the report, but JR ducked. An officer smelled alcohol on Davidson's breath and charged him with public intoxication. Davidson admits he'd been drinking but says he "absolutely" wasn't drunk. He ended up paying a $352 fine for public intoxication, but assault charges were dropped when the Statons refused to cooperate with police. Announcing to the church that JR had "betrayed" him by calling the cops, Davidson fired both of the Statons. Lisa's refusal to submit to God's plan became a regular topic of his televised sermons.

Davidson brushed off calls to repent. Of what? He was just obeying God.

The Statons could not be reached for comment, but Lisa has posted this message on the Internet: "Doyle Davidson has been speaking many things both on and off his TV broadcast for some time about me, Lisa, and has also written things on his 'News of Interest' page. It is NOT the spirit of God speaking out of his mouth. Doyle is speaking by a witchcraft divination spirit. Many wicked things have also been said and done in private by Doyle to me and which I will not go into details because God sees, hears, and he knows."

Davidson responded by calling his critics devils and sorcerers.

Dena's soul roiled at every twist in this nightly drama. According to court testimony, after a series of encounters--Lisa chasing Davidson with a fly swatter, Lisa telling Davidson her children hated him--the Statons went into hiding. Davidson says he last spoke to Lisa in June 2005. "She came by and said some things to me. She was mad."

In e-mailed letters, Davidson vilified Lisa for joining forces with a group of former believers who were plotting against him.

"Do you ever consider that your tongue is set on fire from hell?" Lisa shot back in one of her e-mails.

Davidson still expects Lisa to return to him some day. "I saw the power of darkness take Lisa over," he says. "I was horrified to watch her. She lost control, and that devil had her. She became an enemy of mine." But God, he says, will bring her home.

On November 21, 2004, Dena went to Sunday services with John and the children. That day, Davidson severely criticized the Plano Police Department and cursed Lisa's rebellion. He had not been drunk; the accusations against him were from lying spirits. The whole thing was a "set-up by Satan" to destroy his ministry.

Indignant and upset, Dena told John after church about her desire to talk to the police, to demand they drop the charges against this man of God. John took Dena to Davidson, who insisted he could handle the police himself.