HOUSTON — Imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is in a medically induced coma in a Texas hospital after complications from fasting.
A person familiar with Jeffs’ condition said Jeffs, 55, is expected to survive. The person requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss Jeffs’ condition publicly.
Jeffs had told corrections officers he’s fasted in the weeks since receiving a life sentence for sexually assaulting underage followers he took as spiritual brides, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.
The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a history of refusing to eat while incarcerated.
Jeffs attorney Emily Detoto said her client was taken to East Texas Medical Center in Tyler on Sunday night. It was not immediately clear how long he’d gone without food before being hospitalized.
During Jeffs’ trial, prosecutors used DNA evidence to show he fathered a child with a 15-year-old and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old. Both were among 24 underage wives whom prosecutors said Jeffs amassed.
Court documents show Jeffs tried to hang himself in January 2007 while awaiting trial on rape charges in Washington County, Utah. He also threw himself against the walls of his cell and banged his head, although he later told a mental-health expert he really wasn’t trying to kill himself.
