TEXAS
San Angelo Standard-Times
By Matthew Waller
MIDLAND — The Texas Ranger had to squeeze through a hole in the wall to get into the vault, grasping a gun and flashlight.
Inside the locked precinct sacred to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Texas Ranger Lt. Jesse Valdez found rows of cabinets laden with boxes of records. It was April 2008 when he first entered the vault within the Temple Annex on the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, and now those records are being used as evidence against former FLDS President Wendell Loy Nielsen.
Nielsen, 71, a former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with three counts of third-degree bigamy, each count punishable by two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Friday was the third day of the trial, and the day began with testimony from Valdez.
Prosecutor Eric Nichols asked Valdez about gaining entrance to the building, the gleaming white Temple Annex, which housed the vault.
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