What it took to get Warren Jeffs into prison
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Warren Jeffs appears at a Nevada court hearing in 2006. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Fifteen years ago today, Warren Jeffs served the first day of his life sentence for sexually assaulting girls aged 12 and 15, who he took among his scores of brides while leader of the nation's largest polygamous sect.
The intrigue: After alleged abuses dating back two decades, five years as president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, three months on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list, and two overturned convictions in Utah — it took a Texas jury just 30 minutes to reach a verdict on Aug. 9, 2011.
Zoom in: Jeffs was convicted on evidence seized in a 2008 raid on his YFZ Ranch compound near Eldorado, where Texas authorities took custody of more than 460 children.
- Prosecutors played an audio tape he made of himself assaulting the girl who was 12. DNA evidence showed he'd fathered a baby with the 15-year-old.
Catch up quick: A St. George jury convicted Jeffs of accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry his cousin, but the Utah Supreme Court reversed the verdict over flawed jury instructions.
The latest: Jeffs has spent the past 15 years at an east Texas prison.
- As "prophet, seer and revelator" of the FLDS church, he immediately began receiving more than 1,000 letters per day from his followers.
- He has issued multiple prophecies and edicts from prison.
- Former FLDS members have said he still exerts control over the faithful, even as the church's influence gradually fades in its hometown at the Utah-Arizona border.
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The bottom line: Jeffs will become eligible for parole in 2038, when he's 82 years old.