Warren Jeffs Trial: Polygamist Heard Giving Instructions to Girls on Sex
The sentencing hearing for convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs continued Monday with prosecutors producing evidence of a tape revealing Jeffs giving explicit sexual instructions to a group of girls. Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, can be heard on the tape instructing the girls to "set aside inhibition and reservation."
The state also introduced piles of $100 bills, sunglasses, wigs and cell phones. FBI Agency John Broadway testified that the objects were found in the Cadillac Escalade Jeffs used before his capture in 2006.
The jurors are weighing evidence to determine Jeff’s punishment after they convicted him last week of sexually assaulting two children whom he took as "spiritual wives." The 55-year-old faces maximum life sentence in prison.
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If given the maximum sentence on both counts, Jeffs faces up to 119 years in prison to be served consecutively.
The sentence hearing began on Friday after an emotional trial revealed that the sect leader also raped his nephew and niece. Jeffs objected to the introduction of items seized during a raid on his ranch in 2008, saying he should receive “religious protection.” One of the items included a 20-minute videotape of Jeffs sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Jeffs requested to be removed from the hearing and remained outside the courtroom on Saturday, while his nephew and niece provided testimony that Jeffs raped them at a young age.
Brent Jeffs, 28, told jurors how his uncle raped him when he was 5 years old.
“He began to tell me that we were going to do God’s will. This is between me, you and God,” he recalled Jeffs as saying.
During the niece’s testimony, prosecutors had to suspend questioning as she began to cry uncontrollably.
“He made me sit on his lap,” she testified, and did “inappropriate things to me.”
Later today, the state is expected to rest its case. Jeff’s lawyers will then have an opportunity to call witnesses.
