Polygamist gets life sentence for sexual assault
Source: Agencies |
August 11, 2011, Thursday
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POLYGAMIST leader Warren Jeffs, who heads a breakaway Mormon sect in the US, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for sexually assaulting two underage girls he claimed as "spiritual" brides.
The Texas jury of 10 women and two men deliberated for less than an hour before giving him a 99-year sentence for one charge and 20 years for a second - both the maximum.
The case against Jeffs and others stems from a raid on his sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in rural Texas in April 2008. Authorities took custody of some 400 children but returned them to their families after an investigation and DNA tests.
"Justice has arrived for Warren Jeffs," said Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols, who prosecuted the case. "We expect he will spend the rest of his life in prison."
Prosecutors said Jeffs, 55, "played a sick game of child molestation under the guise of religious ceremony."
He will serve his prison terms consecutively and is not eligible for parole until 2070. Jeffs was convicted last week of aggravated sexual assault on a child and sexual assault on a child in connection with two girls he "married" when they were 12 and 14 years old.
He fathered a child with the older girl and was heard on audio recordings telling groups of teenage girls they would be "rejected by God" if they refused his sexual advances.
A crowd heckled Jeffs as he was put into a police car after the sentencing.
"Do you still think you're the prophet?" one woman yelled.
Jeffs abused his position as leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "to victimize children, to break up families and to satisfy his own personal appetites and desires," Nichols told the jury.
Jeffs, who represented himself at trial, had argued in loud outbursts that the court was trampling on his religious rights by hearing the case.
His sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church.
The Texas jury of 10 women and two men deliberated for less than an hour before giving him a 99-year sentence for one charge and 20 years for a second - both the maximum.
The case against Jeffs and others stems from a raid on his sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in rural Texas in April 2008. Authorities took custody of some 400 children but returned them to their families after an investigation and DNA tests.
"Justice has arrived for Warren Jeffs," said Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols, who prosecuted the case. "We expect he will spend the rest of his life in prison."
Prosecutors said Jeffs, 55, "played a sick game of child molestation under the guise of religious ceremony."
He will serve his prison terms consecutively and is not eligible for parole until 2070. Jeffs was convicted last week of aggravated sexual assault on a child and sexual assault on a child in connection with two girls he "married" when they were 12 and 14 years old.
He fathered a child with the older girl and was heard on audio recordings telling groups of teenage girls they would be "rejected by God" if they refused his sexual advances.
A crowd heckled Jeffs as he was put into a police car after the sentencing.
"Do you still think you're the prophet?" one woman yelled.
Jeffs abused his position as leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "to victimize children, to break up families and to satisfy his own personal appetites and desires," Nichols told the jury.
Jeffs, who represented himself at trial, had argued in loud outbursts that the court was trampling on his religious rights by hearing the case.
His sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church.
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