With jury selection completed, the trial of Rodney Holm began Tuesday afternoon with opening statements and almost two hours of testimony from the accused bigamist's third "wife."
Holm, a police officer in the polygamous community of Hildale, is charged with two second-degree felony counts of unlawful sex with a 16- or 17-year-old, and a third-degree felony charge of bigamy.
The charges are a result of Holm's Dec. 12, 1998, "spiritual marriage" to Ruth Stubbs, when she was 16 and he was 32.
Holm, 37, is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members continue to practice polygamy based on what they maintain is the true teaching of Joseph Smith.
On Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Paul Graf told the eight-member jury that the living arrangement between Holm and Stubbs while Holm was legally married to another woman is against state bigamy laws.
"They lived as husband and wife," Graf said. "And did all the things normal, married couples do in a relationship."
Graf described the case as "sad and tragic" because of the heartache it caused Stubbs, now 21, and the three children she had with Holm.
Defense attorney Max Wheeler asked the jury members to keep the facts of the case in context with the religious beliefs of the community where Holm grew up, which, for six generations, has advocated plural marriage despite attempts by federal and later state laws to end it. He asked that they reject stereotypes about polygamists and not confuse members of the FLDS Church with the actions of other high-profile polygamists or splinter groups in Utah such as Tom Green or the Kingston family.
He emphasized that Stubbs, however young, knew what she was getting into, and that the union was not a marriage under Utah civil law but was the result of a religious ceremony.
"They never pretended it to be otherwise," Wheeler said.
In questioning Stubbs, Assistant Attorney General Kristine Knowlton followed events chronologically, from her family's religious beliefs to Stubbs' receiving only a sixth-grade education, to her marriage to Holm. She was asked about her decision to leave the life she shared with Holm, his two other wives -- one of them her sister, Suzie -- and 20 children.
Under Knowlton's questioning, Stubbs testified she had wanted to marry another man, but on Dec. 10, 1998, was instructed by church prophet Rulon Jeffs to marry Holm instead. She married him the next day, in a white dress at Jeffs' house in Hildale.
When Knowlton asked, "Was the word 'marry' used?" Stubbs said "no," that the term "To belong to him" was used instead. She acknowledged the couple did use the words "I do" but never received a certificate from the ceremony.
Stubbs described her sexual relationship with Holm as being "to create children."
Stubbs said she eventually wanted out of the relationship and left in December 2001, taking her children with her to another sister's house in Phoenix.
Under cross-examination from Wheeler, Stubbs said Holm was as surprised as she was when Jeffs told her to marry him instead of the man she wanted to marry.
"Didn't [Holm] say don't go through with it if you weren't sure?" Wheeler asked.
"Yes," said Stubbs. She also testified Holm did not otherwise pressure her into the marriage.
Stubbs is expected to take the stand again when court resumes today.