Jeffs guilty — Verdict: FLDS leader facing up to life in prison

ST. GEORGE — Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs stood stoically as the jury pronounced him guilty on two counts of rape as an accomplice stemming from a marriage he performed between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

The jury handed down the verdict after deliberating for about three hours on Tuesday. Jeffs and his followers showed no emotion as it was read.

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20, and Jeffs, 51, faces a possible sentence of five years to life in prison.

Reacting to the verdict, Elissa Wall, the alleged victim in the case, said she followed her heart and spoke the truth.

"This trial has not been about religion or a vendetta," she said outside the courthouse. "It is simply about child abuse and preventing further abuse."

"The easy thing would have been to do nothing, but I have followed my heart and spoken the truth," she said.

The state courts made evidence used in the trial public. Included were diary entries that Wall wrote, love notes and cards from her then-husband Allen Steed, as well as photographs taken at the time of her wedding.

In one diary entry the state made public, Wall wrote of being betrothed to her husband: "It caught me by such surprise that I just stood there. I will never forget the emotions that went through my head."

Defense attorneys also used some of Wall's words against her, as well as love notes and cards from Steed.

"Dear Elissa," read one card. "You are the flower of my life. Love, Al"

Prosecutors and defense attorneys also used FLDS devotionals and instructions as part of their cases.

On Tuesday, Prosecutors hailed the jury's decision as "a just verdict."

"They applied the law to the facts," Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said.

He also praised Wall, his star witness. She testified that at age 14, she was forced into a marriage with her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed, who later forced her to have sex against her will. When she went to Jeffs and asked to be released from the marriage, she said he told her to return and give herself "mind, body and soul" to her husband.

Belnap called Wall, who is now 21, "a pioneer."

"She stood and took the stand and withstood attacks on her credibility and reputation with honor and dignity," he said Tuesday.