Trial date set for Jeffs in first of two Arizona cases

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- More than five years will pass between the original indictment of polygamous church sect prophet Warren Jeffs in Arizona and his first trial in Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman.

Attorneys and Judge Steven Conn established a schedule during a Friday hearing that sets the first of two Arizona trials for Jeffs on Nov. 2.

The original indictment of Jeffs, now 54, stretches all the way back to June 2005. Over time, that indictment was dismissed and a new indictment crafted in 2007 accuses Jeffs of facilitating illegal sexual relations between underage girls and male adults.

Under a legal accomplice theory, Mohave County attorney Matt Smith contends that the leader of the Arizona-Utah border-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is criminally responsible for the sexual violation of the underage girls by assigning them to male adults in church-sanctioned spiritual unions, or "celestial marriages."

Jeffs is charged with two counts of sexual conduct with a minor for alleged sexual relations arising from the union of a 16-year-old girl and her 51-year-old cousin in 2001. That's the case that is set for trial in November.

Jeffs also is charged with conspiracy and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor for alleged sexual relations during the union of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin, also in 2001. Attorneys and Judge Conn agreed Friday that the second case won't be set for trial until after the first is completed.

Jeffs made the FBI's most-wanted list after he was charged in Arizona and remained a fugitive. He was taken into custody during an August 2006 traffic stop on Interstate 15 north of Las Vegas.

Jeffs has already been convicted in Utah of two counts of rape as an accomplice. He was sentenced to two consecutive five-years-to-life sentences.

Once Arizona's legal proceedings are completed, Jeffs is likely to be headed to Texas where he faces charges for alleged crimes at the FLDS owned and occupied Yearning For Zion ranch outside Eldorado.