UPDATE 1-New charges filed against New Mexico compound suspects

"New charges were filed on Friday against two of five adults arrested for alleged child abuse at a New Mexico compound after autopsy results showed an abducted toddler died there and was hidden on the property, Taos County Sheriff's Office said.

Jany Leveille, 35, and her husband Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, were charged with abuse of a child resulting in death, as well as conspiracy to commit an abuse of a child, both of which are first degree felonies that carry potential life sentences, Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said in a statement.

The two previously only faced charges for child abuse that did not result in death or bodily harm, a third-degree felony.

"We now know the child died on December 24, 2017, and was concealed at the compound," Hogrefe said in the statement.

Lawyer Kelly Golightley, who is representing Leveille, declined to comment. Ibn Wahhaj's lawyer, Tom Clark, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors have portrayed Ibn Wahhaj, the son of a prominent New York Muslim cleric, as the leader of the group and accused him of giving weapons training to two teenage sons to carry out attacks on "corrupt institutions" such as schools.

Leveille was the spiritual leader and driving force behind the group, according to interviews with her brother in Haiti, the couple's former imam in Atlanta, and a neighbor in New Mexico.

Defense lawyers have said the defendants were practicing their rights to religious freedom and to own firearms and are being discriminated against for being black and Muslim.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said in court testimony on Aug. 13 that Ibn Wahhaj's severely ill son died in as his father, carried out a "ruqya" Islamic faith healing ritual on him to cast out evil spirits.

Ibn Wahhaj is accused of abducting the boy in December from his first wife in Georgia and taking him to the compound near Amalia, northern New Mexico, close to the Colorado border.

The boy's body was found there on Aug. 6, three days after police raided the compound on reports that 11 children there were starving. The children are now in protective custody. Ibn Wahhaj, his brother in law, Lucas Morton, and sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahhaj are in Taos County jail awaiting trial. Leveille, a Haitian national, is being held in El Paso on federal immigration charges.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)