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ELDORADO, Texas -
After deliberating for more than five hours, a jury decided Tuesday that a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will serve 10 years in prison and will also pay an $8,000 fine for child sex assault. Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted last week of child sex assault for fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl who was a polygamous wife.
Jessop said after the verdict that he was at peace with the decision. Jessop is the first of 12 FLDS members to face criminal charges coming out of last year's raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch.
In closing statements on Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers made impassioned arguments about how much of a sentence Jessop should get.
"Probation is punishment," Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, told the jury.
He attacked Texas prosecutors' case, calling it a "paper case," noting that much of the evidence comes from the documents and diaries seized from the FLDS Church's temple annex last year.
"This is a case about the flesh and blood of a victim," countered assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols, showing pictures of Jessop and his young wife, whom he married at 15. She gave birth to a child about a year later.
Defense attorneys showed their own photos of happy, smiling children and pointed out the character witnesses, members of the Eldorado community who have done business with Jessop and spoke highly of him.
"The government has done nothing but prove to you over and over again that he's a faithful man," defense attorneys said.
But Texas prosecutors said the trial peeled back the curtain and went behind the gates of the Yearning for Zion ranch outside Eldorado, showing a world of underage, polygamous marriages between teenage girls and men more than twice their age. Nichols urged the jury to "send a message" that behavior like that wouldn't be tolerated in rural, Schleicher County.
The case is the first coming out of last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch. Law enforcement, acting on a phone call alleging child abuse, raided the ranch and took 439 children into state protective custody. The children were returned weeks later after a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly, and were not at immediate risk of abuse. The phone call that launched the raid is believed to be a hoax.
A grand jury in Schleicher County indicted a dozen men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, on charges related to underage marriages. Jessop also faces a bigamy trial.
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Jessop said after the verdict that he was at peace with the decision. Jessop is the first of 12 FLDS members to face criminal charges coming out of last year's raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch.
In closing statements on Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers made impassioned arguments about how much of a sentence Jessop should get.
"Probation is punishment," Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, told the jury.
He attacked Texas prosecutors' case, calling it a "paper case," noting that much of the evidence comes from the documents and diaries seized from the FLDS Church's temple annex last year.
"This is a case about the flesh and blood of a victim," countered assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols, showing pictures of Jessop and his young wife, whom he married at 15. She gave birth to a child about a year later.
Defense attorneys showed their own photos of happy, smiling children and pointed out the character witnesses, members of the Eldorado community who have done business with Jessop and spoke highly of him.
"The government has done nothing but prove to you over and over again that he's a faithful man," defense attorneys said.
But Texas prosecutors said the trial peeled back the curtain and went behind the gates of the Yearning for Zion ranch outside Eldorado, showing a world of underage, polygamous marriages between teenage girls and men more than twice their age. Nichols urged the jury to "send a message" that behavior like that wouldn't be tolerated in rural, Schleicher County.
The case is the first coming out of last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch. Law enforcement, acting on a phone call alleging child abuse, raided the ranch and took 439 children into state protective custody. The children were returned weeks later after a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly, and were not at immediate risk of abuse. The phone call that launched the raid is believed to be a hoax.
A grand jury in Schleicher County indicted a dozen men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, on charges related to underage marriages. Jessop also faces a bigamy trial.
SEND US YOUR NEWS, WEATHER AND SPORTS PICTURES! www.fox13now.com/pics
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @fox13now
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