San Angelo, USA - With 700 people summoned for a jury selection process that may take three days, the trial for Warren Jeffs, the head of a polygamy-sanctioning religious sect, is set for Monday morning.
Jeffs ended his last pretrial hearing Thursday, with 9 a.m. Monday set for the beginning of the trial, when potential jurors are to appear at the Tom Green County District Courthouse.
The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child.
On Thursday, attorneys offered several documents having to do with a hearing on the suppression of evidence that is to occur during jury selection, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther said.
Those documents were sealed.
"How do we do a trial if it's all sealed?" Walther asked.
Eric Nichols, representing the state, said the suppression hearing could still be in open court, but he alluded to a federal search warrant and probable cause affidavit that needed to be kept out of public sight.
The evidence against members of the FLDS has come largely from an April 2008 raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County. The raid came as a result of law enforcement searching for a woman who called claiming she was being abused at the ranch.
The call is widely believed to have been a hoax. Law enforcement authorities removed trailer loads of boxes of documents and electronic storage devices among other pieces of evidence.
Attorneys for several FLDS men who had been indicted based on evidence from that raid have sought to have the evidence suppressed, but all such motions have failed.
The suppression hearing in Jeffs' trial would happen after the potential jurors have been narrowed down, Walther said, but before jurors are sworn in.
Walther said 700 jury summons have gone out, but only about 280 potential jurors are available to come.
Attorneys estimated that jury selection may take about three days.
Seven FLDS men have undergone prosecution, including five in jury trials, with their sentences from six to 75 years in prison for charges including felony bigamy and sexual assault.
The attorneys at Thursday's pretrial hearing also debated on what to include on the defense's jury questionnaire, meant to streamline the jury selection process.
They debated whether including "co-workers" for a question, the contents of which they did not specify, was too broad, and it was determined that it should speak to relatives and close friends instead.
One question regarded asking what opinion people had about FLDS principles.
"To give this in a vacuum may create more problems," Walther said, and she did not include that part of the question.
Deric Walpole, Jeffs' lead attorney, said he plans to file a change of venue motion, but Nichols said that motion may be held through jury selection in case a jury cannot be seated.