Polygamous sect leader convicted on state charges after girls found in unventilated trailer
Samuel Bateman, a polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence in a child sex abuse case, was convicted in Arizona on state child abuse charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in which authorities found three girls locked inside an enclosed trailer.
A Coconino County jury found Bateman guilty Friday on three counts of child abuse. The verdict came after about 40 minutes of deliberation. Bateman is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25.
Each child abuse count carries a mandatory prison term of four to eight years. The judge will decide whether the sentences run at the same time or one after another.
The case centered on an August 2022 incident in Flagstaff, where police stopped Bateman after a witness reported seeing children’s fingers reaching through gaps in the doors of a trailer he was towing. Officers found three girls, then ages 11 to 14, inside the unventilated trailer. It contained a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs.
Prosecutors said Bateman knowingly endangered the girls by hauling them for hours in hot conditions inside a trailer meant for cargo, not passengers.
"It's common sense that you don't carry people in a trailer designed for cargo on a hot day with no ventilation," prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told jurors during closing arguments.
Bateman represented himself at trial, with appointed advisory counsel available. Testifying in his own defense, he denied intending to hurt anyone. He acknowledged under questioning that the trailer was hot and poorly ventilated, but minimized the danger.
"I just trusted myself as a driver," he said. "I asked God to bless me every time we hopped in that vehicle."
He claimed he thought the girls had gotten out when they stopped. He said he was as "shocked as could possibly be" when he learned that they were still inside when he was pulled over.
The Arizona case followed Bateman’s federal conviction in a broader abuse and kidnapping conspiracy case. Federal prosecutors accused him of using his status as a self-proclaimed prophet to coerce girls, some as young as 9, into sex acts with him and others. He was also convicted of plotting to remove girls from protective custody.
That federal case drew wider public attention and is featured in the Netflix series "Trust Me: The False Prophet."
Bateman has previously said he had more than 20 "spiritual wives," including several underage girls. Authorities have described him as the leader of a small religious offshoot connected to communities along the Arizona-Utah border that have long been associated with polygamous sects.
Federal officials said Bateman traveled through Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska as he built a following linked to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS church has historically been centered in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
Bateman was once considered a trusted follower of Warren Jeffs, the former FLDS leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting children.
The FLDS church practices polygamy, a doctrine rooted in early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mainstream church abandoned polygamy in 1890 and now bars the practice.
The influence of the FLDS church has declined sharply in Colorado City and Hildale. A 2017 court order placed the communities under outside supervision after findings that church control had infected local government and law enforcement. The towns were released from that oversight last year, earlier than expected, after officials cited major changes in local governance and community life.
Practicing members of the sect are now believed to make up only a small share of the population in those towns.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.