Warren Jeffs, Polygamist Sect Leader, Gets Life in Prison

What was Warren Jeffs convicted of?

Warren Jeffs, 55, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), was convicted in August 2011 on two counts of child sexual assault: aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl, both of whom he had taken as "spiritual wives." A Texas jury deliberated less than half an hour before imposing the maximum on both counts — life in prison for the first, 20 years plus a $10,000 fine for the second, to be served consecutively.

The prosecution's evidence was overwhelming and largely of Jeffs' own making. Audiotapes seized from his car and from the church's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, played for jurors, recorded Jeffs giving explicit "celestial marriage" instructions to young girls. DNA evidence showed he had fathered a child with the 15-year-old. Detailed diaries, photographs, and records seized in the 2008 raid on the ranch filled in the rest.

Why did this conviction succeed where others failed?

Jeffs had evaded justice for years. Placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 2006, he was captured that August at a Nevada traffic stop carrying wigs, cell phones, and cash. A 2007 Utah conviction for facilitating rape was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court in 2010 over flawed jury instructions. The Texas prosecution succeeded where others had stumbled because of the sheer documentary trail — tapes, diaries, and DNA that Jeffs himself had generated and preserved.

Jeffs represented himself during the eight-day trial, delivering a rambling defense that framed the prosecution as religious persecution and warning of divine judgment. At the punishment phase, he read a statement he claimed was from God, promising a "whirlwind of judgment" if he was not set free. The jury was unmoved. His nephew Brent Jeffs testified during sentencing that Jeffs had raped him at age five — a reminder that the crimes documented in the ranch tapes were not an aberration but a pattern.

A man who claimed to speak for God was undone by the tapes of his own voice.