Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Could Get Life Sentence, by Will Weissert, Detroit Free Press, August 6, 2011

Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Could Get Life Sentence

By Will Weissert
Detroit Free Press
August 6, 2011

http://www.freep.com/article/20110806/NEWS07/108060332/Polygamist-leader-Warren-Jeffs-could-get-life-sentence

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been serving as his own attorney, but the judge ordered two standby lawyers to take over Friday. / TONY GUTIERREZ/Associated Press

As a prophet of his polygamist sect, Warren Jeffs documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young woman he wed, even recording his intimate moments.

It was those meticulous records -- including an audiotape of what prosecutors said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he'd taken as a bride -- that helped authorities secure two child sex assault convictions against the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Now, prosecutors say they hope those same records will help bring a life prison sentence.

The west Texas jurors who convicted Jeffs began determining his punishment Friday -- which could be up to 119 years to life in prison -- and were expected to hear evidence about scores of alleged crimes not mentioned during his trial.

For starters, Jeffs had 78 wives in addition to his legal spouse, and 24 of them were younger than 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 walked out of his sentencing hearing in protest Friday after reading a statement he said was from God. The statement promised a "whirlwind of judgment" on the world if God's "humble servant" wasn't set free.

Jeffs represented himself during an eight-day trial that ended with his conviction. But before the punishment phase began Friday, Jeffs said, "I request the full removal of myself as an objection to all that has been presented."

Jeffs asked to be taken back to jail, but state District Judge Barbara Walther denied his request. Instead, he was placed in a room near the court and may return whenever he chooses.

He also asked to keep serving as his own attorney, but Walther said he couldn't leave and continue to represent himself at the same time. Instead, she ordered two lawyers who had been Jeffs' standby counsel, Deric Walpole and Emily Munoz Detoto, to represent him.

Jeffs never returned to court, and the proceedings continued without him. Walther ordered jurors back to court today to continue hearing testimony, but indicated it still may be several days before the case will be handed back to them to decide the punishment.

Walpole said he didn't know whether Jeffs would be present in the courtroom today.

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.

Jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before finding Jeffs guilty Thursday of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, whom he'd wed during what his sect considers spiritual marriages.

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 girl. 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.

Jeffs' sect has more than 10,000 members nationwide who believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.

Both victims entered into unions with Jeffs willingly, and did not participate in the trial against him. But Nichols said in his closing argument that the crimes were so egregious that under Texas law, convictions did not require the victim to bring charges.