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Last week, a federal judge sentenced the leader of a splinter group from the polygamous sect, the FLDS, to 50 years in prison.

His name is Sam Bateman, and he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport a minor for sexual activity in kidnapping.

It was a play arrangement. Essentially what he did was admit that he had more than 20 so-called spiritual wives.

Ten of them were girls. One was only nine.

And he admitted to sexually abusing almost all of them. In 2019, Bateman had declared himself the

prophet of the polygamous families who were part of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints. We spoke recently with the photojournalist Trent Nelson and the researcher Lindsay Hansen Park about this story.

And they told us the community had been left adrift when their leader, Warren Jeffs, was arrested in 2006.

Bateman and a friend, Maroni Johnson, took advantage of the power vacuum in that community.

Are you Warren Jeffs? Yes. All right, Mr. Jeffs, you're being held as a fugitive, and there are two fugitive holds for you, one from Utah,

one from Arizona.

I'm going to explain to you very quickly what your rights are in regards to being a fugitive

and justice, then you tell me what you want to do.

A jury has now been selected, and the trial is about to begin in the case against polygamous

sex leader Warren Jeff.

Yeah, the 55-year-old is being charged with two counts of sexual assault, one with a girl as young as 12 years old.

Jeffs is guilty of sexual assault of a child, an aggravated sexual assault of a child.

That ruling came down just over an hour ago.

Polygamous leader Warren Jeff's just sentenced to life in prison a little less than an hour ago.

In the FLDS community, Warren Jeff says the prophet, and the prophet arranges the marriages. It's his role,

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