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ELDORADO, Texas -
Sentencing is underway for a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convicted of child sex assault. Raymond Jessop, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Jessop was convicted on Friday after a jury in a rural Texas town deliberated only a couple of hours before handing down the guilty verdict. Jessop was accused of fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl he had taken as a plural wife. He was taken into custody and has been held over the weekend at the Schleicher County Jail, authorities said.
That same jury is now deciding what kind of sentence he will get. They will take testimony in a hearing that could last all day. Among the witnesses: former FLDS member Carolyn Jessop, who chronicled her life in the polygamous church in the best-selling book "Escape." She was once married to the current leader of the FLDS Church's "Yearning for Zion" ranch, located outside Eldorado.
Raymond Jessop is the first of a dozen FLDS members charged with various crimes to stand trial. Most face child sex assault charges and bigamy. The charges were leveled in the aftermath of last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch that resulted in hundreds of children being taken into state protective custody based on a phone call alleging abuse. That call is believed to be a hoax and the children were ultimately returned after a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly.
The criminal cases, however, move forward with the next one scheduled to begin in December.
Fox 13's Ben Winslow will have more on the sentencing of Raymond Jessop from Texas on Fox 13 News at 5 and 9.
SEND US YOUR NEWS, WEATHER AND SPORTS PICTURES! www.fox13now.com/pics
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @fox13now
Jessop was convicted on Friday after a jury in a rural Texas town deliberated only a couple of hours before handing down the guilty verdict. Jessop was accused of fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl he had taken as a plural wife. He was taken into custody and has been held over the weekend at the Schleicher County Jail, authorities said.
That same jury is now deciding what kind of sentence he will get. They will take testimony in a hearing that could last all day. Among the witnesses: former FLDS member Carolyn Jessop, who chronicled her life in the polygamous church in the best-selling book "Escape." She was once married to the current leader of the FLDS Church's "Yearning for Zion" ranch, located outside Eldorado.
Raymond Jessop is the first of a dozen FLDS members charged with various crimes to stand trial. Most face child sex assault charges and bigamy. The charges were leveled in the aftermath of last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch that resulted in hundreds of children being taken into state protective custody based on a phone call alleging abuse. That call is believed to be a hoax and the children were ultimately returned after a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly.
The criminal cases, however, move forward with the next one scheduled to begin in December.
Fox 13's Ben Winslow will have more on the sentencing of Raymond Jessop from Texas on Fox 13 News at 5 and 9.
SEND US YOUR NEWS, WEATHER AND SPORTS PICTURES! www.fox13now.com/pics
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @fox13now
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