ELDORADO, Texas -
A member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church will spend the next 10 years in a Texas prison with no chance of probation. A jury in rural Schleicher County, Texas, deliberated about six hours on Tuesday before handing down the sentence.
As he was led from the courthouse to jail, Raymond Jessop spoke with Fox 13's Ben Winslow.
"Mr. Jessop, do you feel you're being persecuted because of your religion?" he was asked.
"I'm at peace," he replied. "I'll say that. That's all."
The 10 year sentence follows Jessop's conviction on a felony child sexual assault charge. Prosecutors alleged the 38-year-old Hildale man fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl who was his polygamous wife in an arranged marriage.
"Raymond Merril Jessop had engaged in a total of one legal marriage in the state of Utah, and after that, a total of eight so called 'spiritual' or 'celestial marriages' within the FLDS Church," said deputy Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols.
Polygamy and the Utah-based FLDS Church were a central theme at sentencing. Prosecutors focused on a culture of arranged marriages between teenaged girls and men twice their age. Defense attorneys portrayed Jessop as a "man of faith."
"They know what this is," FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said of Texas authorities. "It's a religious war that they have chosen to take out on the FLDS."
Willie Jessop said the prosecution of Raymond Jessop was revenge for last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch. Hundreds of children were taken into custody over abuse allegations -- only to be returned after a pair of appellate courts found the state acted improperly, and there was no evidence the children were at immediate risk of abuse. Texas authorities at the time tried to argue a culture where girls would become child brides and boys were groomed to be sexual perpetrators.
The raid itself is believed to be based on a hoax phone call, but authorities seized evidence from the ranch that led to the indictments of a dozen FLDS members on charges related to underage marriages. Among them, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of rape as an accomplice in Utah for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
The next trial begins in three weeks.
"What they did, breaking in in the YFZ raid, on a hoax telephone call and never being accountable for it to the American people -- I can assure you there's appeals coming," Willie Jessop said, promising that Raymond Jessop's conviction would be appealed. "We've been dreaming for a day of appeals."
As he was led from the courthouse to jail, Raymond Jessop spoke with Fox 13's Ben Winslow.
"Mr. Jessop, do you feel you're being persecuted because of your religion?" he was asked.
"I'm at peace," he replied. "I'll say that. That's all."
The 10 year sentence follows Jessop's conviction on a felony child sexual assault charge. Prosecutors alleged the 38-year-old Hildale man fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl who was his polygamous wife in an arranged marriage.
"Raymond Merril Jessop had engaged in a total of one legal marriage in the state of Utah, and after that, a total of eight so called 'spiritual' or 'celestial marriages' within the FLDS Church," said deputy Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols.
Polygamy and the Utah-based FLDS Church were a central theme at sentencing. Prosecutors focused on a culture of arranged marriages between teenaged girls and men twice their age. Defense attorneys portrayed Jessop as a "man of faith."
"They know what this is," FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said of Texas authorities. "It's a religious war that they have chosen to take out on the FLDS."
Willie Jessop said the prosecution of Raymond Jessop was revenge for last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch. Hundreds of children were taken into custody over abuse allegations -- only to be returned after a pair of appellate courts found the state acted improperly, and there was no evidence the children were at immediate risk of abuse. Texas authorities at the time tried to argue a culture where girls would become child brides and boys were groomed to be sexual perpetrators.
The raid itself is believed to be based on a hoax phone call, but authorities seized evidence from the ranch that led to the indictments of a dozen FLDS members on charges related to underage marriages. Among them, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of rape as an accomplice in Utah for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
The next trial begins in three weeks.
"What they did, breaking in in the YFZ raid, on a hoax telephone call and never being accountable for it to the American people -- I can assure you there's appeals coming," Willie Jessop said, promising that Raymond Jessop's conviction would be appealed. "We've been dreaming for a day of appeals."
