A polygamist sect leader who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for child sex crimes was found guilty Friday of state child abuse charges in connection with three young girls found in a trailer he was dragging across Arizona.Authorities were alerted to the trailer in August 2022 after someone noticed small fingers reaching through a crack in the door. Police stopped Samuel Bateman’s vehicle near Flagstaff and found three girls, ages 11 to 14, in an enclosed space with a couch, camping chairs and a makeshift toilet.In the federal case, Bateman was convicted of forcing a girl as young as 9 to perform sex acts and conspiring to kidnap a child in state care. His crimes are the subject of a Netflix documentary series.Bateman previously claimed to have more than 20 “spiritual wives,” including 10 minors. In his own defense, he told jurors he would never hurt someone he loved. He admitted he knew the girls had spent hours in a hot trailer with poor ventilation, but downplayed the severity.“I just believe in myself as a driver,” Bateman said. “Every time we jump in that car, I pray to God to bless me.”He claimed he believed the girls had left the trailer when the car was parked, and when police pulled him over he was “very shocked” to find them still inside.Prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told the jury: “It’s common sense not to carry people in a trailer designed for freight on a hot day without ventilation,” prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told the jury.Bateman acted as his own attorney in the state trial, although the judge barred any mention of his federal conviction. He made the point himself multiple times, prompting a judge to throw out the remarks.The jury took about 40 minutes to convict Bateman on all three counts of child abuse. Each was sentenced to a mandatory prison term of four to eight years. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 25.
background
Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet, traveled across several Western states to establish branches of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamous group historically based in the border towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Arizona and Utah.He was a trusted follower of former sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex abuse.Mainline Mormonism abandoned polygamy in 1890, and it remains strictly prohibited today.The polygamous sect’s control over border towns has been greatly weakened. A 2017 court order excluded the church from local governance, and the communities fell out of court supervision last summer, nearly two years ahead of schedule. Today, members of the practicing sect constitute only a minority in the area.
