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CRANBROOK, British Columbia — A Canadian court has found two people guilty of taking a 13-year-old girl into the United States for a sexual purpose when she married one of the leaders of a polygamous community.
British Colombia Supreme Court Justice Paul Pearlman ruled Friday that former husband and wife Brandon Blackmore and Gail Blackmore are guilty of taking the girl across the border in 2004.
He found James Oler not guilty of the same charge, saying he couldn't prove that the man crossed the border with a 15-year-old girl who was later married to a member of the polygamous church.
The Blackmores will be sentenced April 13.
The three defendants were members of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church, which has members in the community of Bountiful in southeastern British Colombia.
The charges against the Blackmores centered on a 13-year-old girl who records show was married to Warren Jeffs, the 60-year-old church leader now serving a life sentence in Texas.
Oler was accused of bringing the 15-year-old girl across the border to marry James Leroy Johnson, who was 24 at the time of the marriage.
Much of the evidence heard in the judge-only trial arose from a U.S. investigation into Jeffs.
Brandon Blackmore's lawyer John Gustafson told the judge in his closing submissions that the prosecution failed to prove his client transported the girl across the border or that he knew beforehand that sexual contact with an older man would result.
