Polygamous sect leader guilty of abuse after girls found in trailer on highway | US news
A polygamist cult leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for arranging sex with children was convicted Friday on state child abuse charges after girls were found in an unventilated trailer he was transporting in Arizona.
Someone alerted authorities to the trailer in 2022 after seeing little fingers reaching through gaps in the doors. Police stopped Samuel Bateman’s vehicle as he was driving through Flagstaff and found three girls inside, who were between the ages of 11 and 14 at the time. The trailer was surrounded by a makeshift toilet, a couch, and camping chairs.
Bateman was found guilty of forcing nine-year-old girls to have sex with him and other young adults and of plotting to kidnap the girls from protective custody; the story of this story is the focus of the Netflix series Trust Me: The False Prophet.
Bateman has previously claimed he has more than 20 “spiritual spouses”, including 10 daughters under the age of 18. He testified in his own defense, telling jurors that he would never hurt the people he loved. Under cross-examination, he admitted that he knew the girls had been in a hot caravan for hours and that the ventilation was poor.
“I felt confident as a driver,” he said. “I ask God to bless me every time we get in that vehicle.”
Jurors in the state trial were not supposed to hear about Bateman’s conviction in federal court. The judge prohibited the presentation of evidence. But Bateman brought up the issue several times while representing himself, leading the judge to strike the comments from the record.
The jury reached its verdict in about 40 minutes Friday, convicting him on all three child abuse charges.
Federal authorities said Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet, traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska to form an affiliate of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, historically based in neighboring communities in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
He and his followers practiced polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; this practice was abandoned in 1890 and is now strictly prohibited.
Bateman was previously a trusted follower of the sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting children.
