TEXAS
KCSG
by Matthew Waller
Published – 03/30/12
(Midland, TX) – A Midland jury has sentenced Wendell Loy Nielsen, a former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and close associate of its imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, to the maximum 10 years and $10,000 fine on each of three counts of felony bigamy. The jury had found the former leader of the sect guity of marrying three women in bigamy on Wednesday. The penalty phase of the trial end Friday with the maximum allowed under Texas law.
The defense said the FLDS practice of multiple “spiritual” or “celestial” marriages and argued that those marriages didn’t count as marriages under the bigamy laws because they were not intended to be legal marriages.
The jurors didn’t agree, and after deliberating for about 45 minutes Tuesday night and 45 minutes Wednesday morning, they found Nielsen guilty on all counts.
Nielsen was charged with marrying three women in 2006 when they were 43, 58 and 65, marrying two on the same day.
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