Polygamist leader faces five years to life in prison
 
By Daphne Bramham
CanWest News Service
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah - Warren Jeffs, the leader of the largest polygamist group in North America, was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison Tuesday on two counts of being an accomplice to rape.

"Warren Jeffs belongs in prison for abusing his authority and being an accomplice to rape," Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a statement following the sentencing.

"A jury found Jeffs guilty and Judge Shumate made the appropriate decision to protect other people from being harmed. Unfortunately Jeffs' attorneys and some of his followers continue to claim that this convicted felon is being punished for his beliefs. Jeffs can believe whatever he wants but he is going to prison for his actions, which led to the rape of a child," Shurtleff said.

The victim, Elissa Wall, was 14 when she was forced to marry her 19-year-old first cousin, Allen Steed, who subsequently raped her only a few weeks after the wedding in the spring of 2001.

Jeffs, 51, was found guilty in September of being an accomplice to the rape. The jury deliberated for 17 hours in September before reaching a unanimous decision.

The fundamentalist Mormon prophet, who before his arrest was on the list of America's 10 Most Wanted, plans to appeal. But he may be on trial again within a few months - this time in Arizona where he's charged with five counts of sexual conduct with a minor and two counts of conspiracy.

"Warren Jeffs will be going to Arizona after he is sentenced in Utah," said Mohave County, Ariz., Attorney Matthew Smith in a statement Tuesday.

"I don't know how long it will take to get him to Arizona, but I believe the defendant and his attorneys want him to appear in Arizona as soon as possible after he is sentenced," Smith said.

Last January, Jeffs attempted to hang himself in his cell in Utah's Purgatory Correctional Facility, only days after having confessed to his brother that he was immoral and was no longer the prophet of the polygamist group.

The suicide attempt was recorded in a raft of documents unsealed this month by Judge James Shumate in advance of Jeffs's sentencing hearing.

Jeffs's group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has an estimated 10,000 members in Utah, Arizona, Texas, South Dakota and Bountiful, B.C.

Members believe the prophet to be infallible, God's mouthpiece on Earth and possibly a god himself. Through revelation from God, the prophet determines everything from where people live and work to who marries whom and whether a man is worthy of the three wives needed to get him into the highest realm of heaven.

In January, Jeffs told his brother, Nephi: "I am not the prophet. I was never the prophet and I have been deceived by the powers of evil."
 
canada.com
Originally published Wednesday, November 21, 2007
 
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