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SAN ANGELO, Texas — A judge on Wednesday dealt a blow to the defense of polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs, refusing to suppress evidence police seized during a 2008 raid on his sect's remote West Texas compound.
District Judge Barbara Walther's decision clears the way for a small mountain of documents — including marriage and birth records, and thousands of pages of Jeffs' own writing in personal journals — to be presented to the jury during Jeffs' sexual assault trial. Jurors also may be able to see DNA evidence collected from children living on the compound.
Opening statements in the case are now set for Thursday morning, after one more suppression hearing.
Jeffs' attorneys also say they will file for a change of venue out of San Angelo, Texas, but have yet to do so.
The jury of 10 women and two men were seated Tuesday night out of nearly 300 people. These people are pulled from a region that until just a few years ago had never heard of the polygamist sect.
In Eldorado, Texas, residents of the small town noticed when the FLDS community moved into a ranch outside of town. After the raid of that ranch three years ago, Warren Jeffs and seven of his followers were prosecuted on bigamy and child abuse charges.
Utahn Elissa Wall told "Good Morning America" Wednesday that this trial is an opportunity for the world to see what Warren Jeffs is like.
Wall grew up in the FLDS community and now says Jeffs displayed "a lot of narcissistic behavior."
"He was much like a prince in our community, only he was the mouthpiece of God. He commanded a lot of respect and we all feared him very much," she said.
Jeffs is the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He faces two counts of sexual assault of a child. If convicted, Jeffs could face maximum sentences of 119 years to life in prison.
Wall thinks his followers will still believe even if he's convicted and sentenced to prison.
"They will always continue to believe him until he either dies or something else happens, because it goes against their religion and their entire faith for them to denounce him," she said.
Last year, the Utah Supreme Court reversed Jeffs' 2007 conviction of rape as an accomplice for his role in facilitating the marriage of Wall, then 14 years old, to her 19-year-old cousin Allen Steed.
Written with contributions from Sam Penrod, Mary Richards and The Associated Press.
