“Escape” a book by Carolyn Jessop, former polygamous wife of YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop, was released to the public this week. The book is a dramatic first-person account of life inside the ultra-fundamentalist FLDS church, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children. Carolyn Jessop says that she was eighteen years old when she was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of the FLDS heritage.
Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn says that she had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.
Distraught Jeffs confessed usurping position of prophet
Documents unsealed this week and last by Utah District Judge James Shumate revealed that Fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs tried to kill himself while awaiting trial in the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Utah.
Jeffs tried to hang himself on January 28th, then tried to kill himself again a few days later by banging his head against a wall. Jeffs was taken to Dixie Regional Medical Center where he underwent a competency review.
Only days before, the embattled leader of the FLDS Church confessed to his brother Nephi during jail visit that he was not the prophet. Instead, he directed his followers, including his own family, to look to church bishop William E. Jessop.
Not only did Jeffs order his brother to write down and distribute his confession, he also directed that a video tape of the meeting be made available to anyone who wanted to see it.
Warren Jeffs attorneys told Utah District Judge James Shumate last Friday that there is no way a reasonable juror could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Jeffs was guilty of rape as an accomplice and they asked the judge to overturn the FLDS leader’s recent conviction.
Attorney Walter Bugden filed a motion to arrest judgment, a move allowed under Utah law in which a defendant may make a motion prior to sentencing in order to stop a judge from imposing a criminal penalty.
It could result in a new trial, but only if Judge Shumate agrees.
Jeffs is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 after being convicted on two counts of rape as an accomplice. He could face life in prison.
Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist LDS church won’t be getting out of jail anytime soon. He was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to two consecutive 5-years-to-life terms in Utah state prison after being convicted on two counts of Rape as an Accomplice. Utah 5th District Judge James Shumate, prior to the sentencing, denied a defense motion to set aside the conviction.
He then heard from Elissa Wall, the woman Jeffs coerced in to marrying her 19-year-old first cousin when she was only 14. Wall told the judge she had often thought of this day.
She continued by saying that she was grateful for the justice system “and that you would see the truth and believe in me.”
For his part Judge Shumate told Wall that he realized that whatever sentence he handed down she would continue living under a life sentence. He added that her courage for continuing on was laudable.
Jeffs brother linked to land purchase near Carta Valley in Edwards County
A company controlled by Isaac Jeffs, brother of convicted FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, purchased 424 acres of land in February of 2007 near Carta Valley in Edwards County, Texas.
The property lies in a rugged and isolated region of southwest Edwards County almost halfway between Rocksprings and Del Rio. Jeffs purchased the property under the name High Country Ranches. The land lies along Edwards County Road 650, just east of Ranch Road 2523.
The parcel was once part of the 6,530 acre Indian Gap Ranch. The property was subdivided into smaller ranchettes and offered for sale through Ranch Enterprises, a Kerrville real estate agency for $995 per acre.
Isaac Jeffs reportedly told people at the time of the purchase that he intended to stock the property with exotic game and to surround it with a high fence. However, deed restrictions clearly state that commercial and/or day lease hunting is prohibited on the subdivided ranchettes.
Four years after the former Red Cheek Ranch was acquired by a fundamentalist Mormon sect from Utah and Arizona, and nearly three years after the group applied for a wastewater permit, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has signed off on the project.
The move paves the way for construction to resume on a large wastewater plant on the northeast corner of the 1,791 acre ranch. Work on the plant was halted a couple of years ago when TCEQ inspectors discovered that construction had begun before a permit had been granted.
The YFZ Land LLC, the company that owns the property, has been cited numerous times by TCEQ inspectors for violations of state environmental rules.
“Escape” a book by Carolyn Jessop, former polygamous wife of YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop, was released to the public this week. The book is a dramatic first-person account of life inside the ultra-fundamentalist FLDS church, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.
Documents unsealed this week and last by Utah District Judge James Shumate revealed that Fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs tried to kill himself while awaiting trial in the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Utah.
Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist LDS church won’t be getting out of jail anytime soon. He was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to two consecutive 5-years-to-life terms in Utah state prison after being convicted on two counts of Rape as an Accomplice.
A company controlled by Isaac Jeffs, brother of convicted FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, purchased 424 acres of land in February of 2007 near Carta Valley in Edwards County, Texas.