Imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs hospitalized
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Imprisoned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was in critical condition at a Texas hospital Monday, prison officials said. He had not been eating or drinking enough since his recent conviction on child sexual assault charges.
Jeffs, 55, who has been fasting while being held in a solitary cell near Palestine, Texas, was rushed to a local hospital Sunday night, a prison spokesman told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The spokesman said Jeffs also suffered from “other medical conditions,” which he did not specify. Prison officials did not immediately return a call from The Times.
The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Jeffs was recently sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, whom he’d taken as polygamous brides.
During the trial, prosecutors presented DNA evidence showing he’d fathered a child with the older girl and an audio recording they said captured him sexually assaulting the younger one.
In the sentencing phase, jurors heard additional recordings seized during a 2008 raid at the sect’s Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas. The Tribune said the recordings captured Jeffs giving instructions to three wives, ages 13 to 15, about ‘heavenly sessions,’ meaning sex, and the self-proclaimed prophet having sex in the baptismal font of the ranch’s temple.
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-- Ashley Powers in Las Vegas
Twitter.com/ashleypowers