SAN ANGELO, Texas — Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs recorded everything he said. Thousands of pages, written with Biblical flourish, about how God wanted him to take 12-year-old wives, about how those girls needed to sexually please him, about men he banished for not building his temple fast enough.
Facing his last chance to keep his freedom, Jeffs didn’t say a word. He was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting one of his child brides — among 24 underage wives prosecutors said Jeffs collected — and received the maximum 20-year punishment on a separate child-sex conviction. Jeffs, 55, will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 100 years old.
The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints made no plea for leniency. He ordered his attorneys not to call witnesses during the sentencing phase and forbade them from making a closing argument Tuesday.
Less than half an hour later, jurors returned with the harshest punishment possible. The Associated Press
