Jeffs to be sentenced Tuesday; prosecutors argue against throwing out conviction

ST. GEORGE — Prosecutors in the Warren Jeffs rape case are urging a 5th District Court judge to deny a defense motion to stay the polygamist sect leader's conviction of rape as an accomplice.

In a response filed Friday, Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap argues that Jeffs merely recites his own version of the facts in a motion to "arrest" the guilty verdict rendered against him in September by a Washington County jury. The request to "arrest" a verdict is a legal maneuver designed to halt any subsequent proceedings in the case.

Fifth District Court Judge James L. Shumate is scheduled to sentence Jeffs on Tuesday. He could receive from five years to life in prison on each count.

Jeffs, 51, was found guilty of two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in conducting a 2001 spiritual marriage between an unwilling 14-year-old girl, Elisa Wall, and her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed.

Jeffs' counsel following the ceremony, that the couple should "multiply and replenish the earth," was used at trial as evidence that he knew nonconsensual sex would occur.

Both Wall and Steed grew up as members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, which practices plural and arranged marriages as basic tenets. At the time of the marriage, Jeffs was first counselor to the prophet, his father, Rulon Jeffs.

In his 51-page motion to arrest judgment, filed Nov. 9, Jeffs' defense attorney Wally Bugden argues that, "a reasonable juror could not have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt from the state's purely circumstantial evidence that Jeffs encouraged another to rape Elisa Wall."

Belnap's short reply argues that the evidence to convict was "ample on each and every element of the crimes charged."

"Additionally, contrary to the defendant's assertion that the case relies entirely on circumstantial evidence, the case was based on direct testimony by Elisa Wall and Allen Steed about their interactions together and with Warren Jeffs," according to the state's motion.

Steed, who testified on behalf of the defense, was charged with rape the day after the jury found Jeffs guilty. A preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled in that case.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com