San Angelo, USA - FLDS member Keith Dutton Jr. was sentenced to six years in a Texas penitentiary by a San Angelo jury Wednesday.
Jury members were instructed they could recommend a sentence of anywhere between two to 20 years in prison. They also had the option of recommending probation since Dutton had no prior felony convictions.
His sentence is the shortest so far in this series of trials involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints based on evidence seized from the raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas, not far from El Dorado and San Angelo.
The national news media's attention was focused on the Yearning for Zion Ranch when Texas Rangers, armed with a search warrant based partially on a telephone call, entered the grounds and obtained evidence against the polygamist group.
The telephone called claimed abuse at the ranch. Defense attorneys argued the call was a hoax.
Child Protective Services workers, many from Wichita Falls, Texas, also entered the polygamist compound and removed children.
Texas Rangers from Wichita Falls also participated in the dramatic raid on the compound.
The jury had earlier convicted Dutton for sexual assault of a child.
Previous sentences for other cult members have ranged from seven to 75 years in prison.
All these criminal trials have been based on evidence that older men who are already married have taken underage girls as celestial brides as part of the FLDS practice of polygamy.
Dutson was 20 at the time of his wedding to a victim who was a 15-year old girl at the time.
Dutson is the seventh member of the polygamist sect to stand trial in Texas.
All seven cases have been prosecuted by Eric Nichols of the Texas Attorney General's office, who teamed up with local law enforcement officials in the prosecutions. Nichols was awarded the Lone Star Prosecutor Award by the Texas District and County Attorney's Association at a meeting in September at South Padre Island.
Wichita Falls attorney Dick Sutherland represented one of the children seized by CPS during the raid.
"None of us can presume to know the mind of the jury," Nichols said after receiving the jury verdict, according to an article in the November 10, 2010, Wichita Falls Times and Record News newspaper.
Warren Jeffs, leader of the polygamist group, is expected to be tried in Texas after his convictions in Utah were reversed by the Utah Court of Appeals. Charges pending against him in Arizona were dismissed.
Jeffs, who inherited 20 wives, will walk out of jail a free man if Texas is unable to successfully prosecute him. Utah officials have publicly stated they believe Texas has the best case against the nation's most famous polygamist.
The Texas Attorney General's office has initiated proceedings to bring Jeffs to Texas for prosecution. The polygamist icon's attorneys have vowed to fight extradition to Texas. Jeffs, whose face has been splashed across the covers of national news magazines would be the eighth polygamist prosecuted in Texas.