Poligamist FLDS leader Warren Jeffs GUILTY, Sentencing Phase Begins..
By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER, AP
Read the entire news article here: (I bolded parts)
Polygamist leader walks out of sentencing hearing | US National Headlines | Comcast.net
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/...gamist.Leader/
An excerpt:
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A polygamist sect leader convicted of child sexual assault walked out of his sentencing hearing in protest Friday, after reading a statement he claimed was from God. The statement promised a "whirlwind of judgment" on the world if God's "humble servant" wasn't set free.
Warren Jeffs, 55, represented himself during an eight-day trial that ended with his conviction on two counts of sexual assault. The same jury must now decide his punishment — which could be up to 119 years to life in prison.
But before the punishment phase began and jurors had even been brought back into court Friday, Jeffs said, "I request the full removal of myself as an objection to all that has been presented."
(Please read the whole article. I am apalled that this is ALLOWED in the United States! This is criminal slavery, disguised as a 'religion'! All this criminal activity must be investigated and these compounds SHUT DOWN1 This is only SOME of the crimes being committed in the FLDS! More from the same article))
Prosecutors' strategy during sentencing involves showing jurors evidence of Jeffs committing a slew of alleged crimes not mentioned during his trial.
For starters, Jeffs had 78 wives along with his legal spouse, and 24 of them were under age 17, said Eric Nichols, lead prosecutor for the Texas attorney general's office, which is handling the case. Nichols also said he would show that Jeffs committed six other sexual assaults and either witnessed or performed more than 500 polygamist marriages, as well as 67 other sect marriages involving underage girls.
Jeffs spent years evading arrest — crisscrossing the country as a fugitive who eventually made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2006, Nichols said, and he excommunicated 60 church members he saw as a threat to his leadership, breaking up 300 families while stripping them of property and "reassigning" wives and children.
All of that is separate from the assaults on two girls, ages 12 and 15, that Jeffs was convicted of Thursday, after jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 hours. Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with the older victim and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting the younger one. They played other tapes in which Jeffs was heard instructing as many as a dozen of his young wives on how to please him sexually — and thus, he told them, please God.
After Jeffs left the courtroom Friday, Nichols gave an opening statement, saying Jeffs was guilty of "a breathtaking quantity of criminal activity" as head of the FLDS.
They played a recording in court of the rape of the 12 year old child who was ONLY 12 days into her 12th year, and it proved there were women holding the girl down while he consumated the marriage to the girl! One of the women was HER MOTHER! There was also a number of men there who 'witnessed' the rape!
They live in a compound with a HIGH fence and a locked gate. Women are BORN into this cult and hand over their girls to these so-called PROPHETS...old men!
You won't find many 'boys' there. Some who have escaped are saying once the boys become competion for the old men, they are taken away and put out on the side of the road. Nowhere to stay, no jobs, no money.... Some end up committing suicide. Others turn to male prostitution. They steal or do whatever they can to survive. ALL are barely educated, because they are not allowed to attend public schools and all books in the compound are written by WARREN JEFFS!
I can't believe this is allowed in America! Its a mockery of 'freedom of religion' and all of this FLDS craziness must be stopped! (By the way, those who have escaped say even some sheriffs and judges are FLDS and they help protect the compounds. even taking some back who ESCAPE! And then, the escapees are really in bad trouble at the compounds!) Its just all mind boggling!
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Originally Posted by Diggindeeper
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