SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — The attorney for convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs says jurors should consider his client’s strict fundamentalist upbringing before punishing him.
Jeffs on Friday walked out of his sentencing hearing after reading a statement he said was from God. The statement promised a “whirlwind of judgment” if Jeffs wasn’t set free.
Jeffs never returned to the courtroom, and the sentencing phase of his trial continued without him. He faces up to 119 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of sexual assaulting his underage followers.
Attorney Deric Walpole says Jeffs was simply a product of growing up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said Jeffs was raised in a community that hasn’t changed for centuries.
The sentencing phase resumes Saturday.
