Denver, USA - The younger brother of a polygamist sect leader pleaded guilty Monday to harboring a fugitive, but didn't reveal if he has told authorities where his sibling is hiding from federal charges.
Seth Steed Jeffs, 33, "accepted responsibility for his conduct," federal prosecutor Bill Taylor said. "Harboring a state fugitive is pretty serious conduct."
Taylor had no comment when asked whether Jeffs gave any information about his brother's whereabouts. Jeffs, of Hildale, Utah, had orginally pleaded not guilty in November.
Jeffs' brother Warren Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was indicted in June on an Arizona charge of arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a married man and on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
He was also recently charged in Utah with two counts of rape as an accomplice in arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to a man in Nevada.
The church, which embraces polygamy, is based in Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., and has a ranch outside Eldorado, Texas. It split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the mainstream Mormon Church disavowed plural marriage more than 100 years ago.
Seth Jeffs was arrested Oct. 28, 2005, after a traffic stop in southern Colorado. He faced a federal charge of concealing a fugitive and was indicted in November. He also was hit with state charges of prostitution and solicitation because a man traveling with Jeffs in an SUV said he had been hired for sex, according to court records. The status of those charges was unclear.
During the stop, authorities said they found nearly $142,000 in cash, about $7,000 worth of prepaid debit and cell phone cards and his brother's personal records.
The younger Jeffs faces no more than six months behind bars, Taylor said. Sentencing is set for July 14. Jeffs' attorney, Daniel Smith, said only that his client is now eligible for a probationary sentence. Jeffs did not comment.