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Jury finds sect leader guilty of sexual assault
A Texas jury on Thursday found polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty of two counts of sexual assault on a child.
Jeffs, who represented himself after firing his defense team, remained stoic as the verdict was read. Jurors will decide his fate after hearing additional witness testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, which began Thursday evening.
The sect leader could face up to life in prison for his conviction of sexual assaulting a 12-year-old and 14-year-old who were his "spiritual wives."
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott hailed the verdict.
"Here in the state of Texas, juries render tough, swift justice against anyone who would sexually assault a child. ... We're not surprised, but we're very thankful for their time," he said.
Abbott said prosecutors are seeking life in prison for Jeffs, and would present new, "repulsive" evidence about the sect leader during the trial's penalty phase, which will likely finish Friday.
"I think it will confirm in (jurors') minds why they convicted the man and why they want to put him behind bars for a long time," he said.
Jurors deliberated for less than four hours, beginning Thursday afternoon. They sent out two notes during deliberations, requesting a CD player to listen to audio recordings and asking for the transcript of testimony from a witness.
Jeffs stood silently for most of his 30-minute closing argument Thursday -- the latest dramatic twist in a trial that has included sermonlike speeches about religious freedom and an audio recording that prosecutors allege documents Jeffs' sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in the presence of three other "wives."
The charges against Jeffs stem from a 2008 raid on a ranch his church operates near Eldorado, Texas.
During closing arguments Thursday, Jeffs stared at the table in front of him for most of his allotted block of time, as Judge Barbara Walther counted down.
He looked up at the jury when he reached the 20-minute mark, staring at each member. The jurors stared back.
Five minutes later, Jeffs mumbled, "I am at peace."
The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke so quietly that people in the courtroom strained to hear him.
Prosecutor Eric Nichols warned jurors not to be swayed by Jeffs' frequent invocations of religious freedom as a defense.
The case, he said, has nothing to do with an attack on religion. Instead, it is about Jeffs and his actions, Nichols argued.
He showed pictures of Jeffs' alleged victims as he summed up his argument.
Jeffs began the hearing on Thursday -- the fifth day of his trial -- by asking for what he called constitutional protection because he represents a religious organization. The judge immediately denied his request.
The sect leader then questioned witness J.D. Roundy, a sect member who also had taken the stand for four hours the day before. He did not call additional witnesses to the stand.
On Wednesday, Texas prosecutors rested their case after playing a key piece of evidence for jurors: an audiotape they allege documents Jeffs' sexual assault of a then-12-year-old girl in the presence of three other "wives."
One juror wiped her eyes as she listened to the recording. Another looked at Jeffs out of the corner of her eye. Still another had a hand covering her mouth.
The girl had grown up in Jeffs' Yearning for Zion ranch, clearing cactus and attending a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints school where Jeffs was principal, authorities said.
Prosecutors showed the jury a photo of Jeffs and the girl, with her arms around him, and a marriage certificate which listed the girl's age as 12 at the time.
Jurors then heard the 20-minute tape that began and ended with a man saying a prayer.
The man, alleged by prosecutors to be Jeffs, then addresses the purported victim by name.
At one point, the man asked her how she feels, and a girl replies in a small voice, "I feel fine, thank you." At another point, the man appears to address the others who are present.
Authorities seized the recording from the car Jeffs was traveling in when he was arrested in 2006.
On Tuesday, the jury heard audio recordings that prosecutors said showed Jeffs instructing a 14-year-old victim and his other young "wives" on how to sexually please him in order to win God's favor.
Prosecutors said the 14-year-old bore a child by Jeffs when she was 15.
Jeffs' trial started last week. He made no plea during his arraignment and remained silent for more than a day of the trial proceedings. But on Friday, he began repeatedly objecting -- at one point delivering an hourlong speech about his religious freedom "being trampled upon."
If convicted, Jeffs could be sentenced to five years to life in prison on the charge of aggravated sexual assault regarding the alleged 12-year-old. For the other count, he would face a sentence of two to 20 years.
Jeffs' breakaway sect is believed to have about 10,000 followers. Their practice of polygamy, which the mainstream Mormon Church renounced more than a century ago, is part of the sect's doctrine.
Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list when he was arrested five years ago during a routine 2006 traffic stop in Las Vegas.
He was convicted in Utah on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for using his religious influence over his followers to coerce a 14-year-old girl into marrying her 19-year-old cousin. Afterward, he was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life.
But in July 2010, the Utah Supreme Court overturned his convictions, ruling that the jury instructions were erroneous. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said last week Utah is prepared to retry Jeffs, depending on the outcome of the Texas case.
The Texas legal proceedings were set off after about 400 children were taken from the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch in 2008. Jeffs was also charged with bigamy after the raid and is expected to be tried on that charge later.
Child protection officials said they found a "pervasive pattern" of sexual abuse on the ranch through forced marriages between underage girls and older men.
But the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove the children. The court also said the state lacked evidence to show that the children faced imminent danger of abuse. Most of the children were returned to their families, although some men at the ranch were charged with sexual abuse.
Source: CNN