Data bolstering case against Jeffs

"The Lord has warned me that my enemies in the government and among the apostates are searching for me, wanting to take my life," he said in an April 18, 2005, dictation. Jeffs later says the Lord told him the government hired two assassins to either capture or kill him.

At the time, Jeffs was being sought by law enforcement after being charged in Utah with rape as an accomplice, accused of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

"We hope and pray we can see you soon and enjoy the blessings of heaven awaiting the faithful," a 14-year-old girl alleged to have been married to Jeffs wrote in a letter addressed to "Dearest Warren Sweetheart." Photos of Jeffs kissing the girl in 2006 on their first anniversary were included in court papers.

"I want to be ready when your arms welcome me to your warm embrace and our kiss be long and sweet!! I love you. Your wife Eternally," she wrote.

Jeffs, 52, who was later elevated to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, was arrested in August 2006 in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to five years to life on the Utah charges and is currently in an Arizona jail facing charges there.

While being slipped into child custody cases, the hundreds of boxes and thousands of pages of seized evidence is still being challenged in court. Lawyers for FLDS leaders are seeking to have it either thrown out or restricted, arguing that it was illegally seized in the April raid and much of it is privileged communications between Jeffs and his followers.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com