FLDS man sentenced to 10 years for sex assault

ELDORADO, Texas — Convicted sex offender Raymond Merril Jessop smiled Tuesday on the way to the Schleicher County Jail from a makeshift courtroom where he'd just been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

"I am at peace. I'll say that," the 38-year-old polygamist sect member said in the early evening darkness.

Jurors took about six hours before handing down the sentence of 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine. The second-degree felony of child sexual assault is punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of as much as $10,000.

Jessop's conviction of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the punishment determined by a seven-man, five-woman jury mark a victory for prosecutors in the first of what may be many trials springing from the April 2008 raid on the ranch.

To read the full report, please visit www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/nov/10/jessop-sentenced-to-10-years.