Polygamous sect leader convicted of abuse charges after girls found in trailer on Arizona highway
PHOENIX (AP) — A polygamous cult leader currently serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for arranging sex with children was found guilty Friday on state child abuse charges. Girls were found in an unventilated trailer He was passing through Arizona.
Someone alerted authorities to the trailer in August 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.
In the federal case, Bateman was convicted of forcing girls as young as 9 to have sexual intercourse 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 previously claimed More than 20 “spiritual spouses”He testified in his own defense at the state trial, telling jurors he would never hurt the people he loved. Under cross-examination he accepted that he knew the girls had been in a hot caravan for hours and that the ventilation was poor, but he downplayed the conditions.
“I felt confident as a driver,” he said. “I asked God to bless me every time we got in that vehicle.”
He claimed he thought the girls had gone out when they stopped. He said he was “as shocked as can be” when he was pulled over and discovered they were still inside.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told jurors: “It’s common sense that you don’t transport people in a trailer designed for cargo on a hot day with no ventilation.”
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. . Each count carries a mandatory sentence of four to eight years. The judge has the discretion to conduct the counts consecutively or simultaneously. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 25.
The Associated Press left voicemail and email messages with Bateman’s appointed counsel on Friday.
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 one of his trusted followers Warren Jeffs, who previously led the sect and is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual assault of children.
Influence of the polygamy sect decreased significantly over time in the towns where the sect was historically based. In 2017, a court order placed the towns under control and removed the church from governments and the joint police force.
But the district has changed so rapidly since then that they were removed from court-ordered supervision last summer, almost two years earlier than expected. Members of the sect are now believed to make up only a small percentage of the town’s population.
