The head of a polygamous sect was convicted of state child abuse charges in Arizona.
Samuel Bateman was already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence when he was convicted on June 26.
The latest conviction, this time on state charges, stemmed from an incident in 2022.
In August that year, someone alerted police to small fingers reaching through gaps in a trailer’s doors. Police stopped Bateman’s vehicle while he was driving through Flagstaff. Inside the trailer, police said they found three girls between the ages of 11 and 14, a makeshift toilet, a sofa, and camping chairs, The Associated Press reported.
During the trial, he testified that he would never hurt people he loved, but under cross-examination, he admitted that the girls were in the trailer for hours with bad ventilation.
He had previously said he had 20 “spiritual wives,” including 10 under the age of 18, the AP reported.
In the previous federal case, Bateman was convicted of coercing girls as young as 9 to engage in sex acts with him and other young adults. He was also convicted of plotting to kidnap girls from protective custody. The federal case was not supposed to be discussed at the state trial, but Bateman brought it up several times while defending himself.
He also had an attorney assigned to advise him, Fox News reported.
His case was the subject of the Netflix series “Trust Me: The False Prophet.”
Bateman is, according to the authorities, the leader of a small religious offshoot in communiteis along the Arizona and Utah border that is long-associated with polygamous sects, acccording to Fox News. He was a follower of Warren Jeffs, the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The jury took about 40 minutes to find Bateman guilty of three counts of child abuse. Each count carries a mandatory sentence of between four and eight years, which may be served consecutively or concurrently, the AP said.
The sentencing is scheduled for August.
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