The Mohave Daily News - February 24, 2008
By JIM SECKLER
KINGMAN - The jailed leader of a polygamist sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Colorado City could arrive in Mohave County in a few days.
Warren Steed Jeffs, 51, faces charges of two counts of incest and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor in one 2007 case involving one victim and two counts of incest and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor in another 2007 case involving another victim.
He is also still charged with three counts of sexual conduct with a minor in one 2005 case, sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in another case, and sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in a third case.
Jeffs' Tucson attorney, Michael Piccarreta, said Thursday his client could be in Kingman this week. The defense attorney will file a motion to move the trial to another county.
Jeffs was convicted last year in St. George, Utah, of two counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced to consecutive five-year prison terms for each count.
Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said he will proceed with the two 2007 cases first, and whether he proceeds with the three 2005 cases will be determined by the outcome of the 2007 cases.
The Mohave County Sheriff's Office will pick up Jeffs in Utah and fly him back to Kingman. Once the case is brought to Mohave County, it will be heard before Superior Court Judge Steven Conn.
Sheriff Tom Sheahan previously said Jeffs would be kept in the medical wing of the county jail in a single cell and will be locked down 23 hours a day. He will be out of the cell one hour a day to shower or make phone calls. He is expected to be on a suicide watch. He was reportedly hospitalized last week for being on a self-imposed fast.
In the first of the 2007 cases, Jeffs was allegedly an accomplice to cases of sexual conduct with a minor and incest between May 1 and June 30, 2002, and between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15, 2002. In the second case, he was allegedly an accomplice to cases of sexual conduct with a minor and incest on Aug. 31, 2003, and in September 2003.
In the first of three 2005 charges, he is charged with three counts of sexual conduct with a minor that allegedly occurred between December 1998 and March 1999.
The second case involving charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor allegedly occurred between June and December 2001. The third case allegedly occurred between January and June 2002. All of the alleged crimes occurred in Colorado City.
Eight members of the Colorado City polygamist sect also faced similar charges of sexual conduct with a minor in the past two years in Mohave County Superior Court.
Two men were convicted, three had their charges dropped, two entered into plea agreements and one was acquitted.
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