SALT LAKE CITY -- The sentencing hearing of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs will continue Monday as a Texas jury considers how long he should spend behind bars for sexually assaulting two children.

The evidence introduced in the hearing, and in the trial that preceded it, is shocking and bizarre. But people in Utah have heard a lot of it before. Jeffs already had a long history in Utah before he ordered his followers to build a so-called "place of refuge" in Texas.

This weekend the jury heard accusations that KSL-TV reported on years ago: a climate of tyranny on the Utah- Arizona border and sexual attacks on children as young as 5 in the Salt Lake Valley.

Before replacing his father Rulon as prophet, Warren Jeffs spent years as principal of the Alta Academy. It was an FLDS school within his father's compound at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. In a video was leaked out a few years ago, Jeffs was seen in a rare light mood, hamming it up as Groucho Marx in front of a large audience of children. But for some youngsters, the Alta Academy was a house of terror.

In Texas Saturday, a former student brought the courtroom to tears when she testified Jeffs molested her at the Alta Academy when she was 8. Brent Jeffs also testified tearfully that Warren Jeffs, his uncle, sodomized him at the school when he was just five years old.

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Warren Jeffs ruled with heavy hand, Texas jurors hear in sentencing phase

Convicted FLDS leader Warren Jeffs ruled with a heavy and abusive hand, several former followers testified Saturday, recounting how the man they once revered as a prophet banned parades, Sports Illustrated magazine and even the color red upon rising to power.

He told the same story in an interview with KSL-TV in 2005, recalling the words Jeffs used to instill fear in a young victim. "You do exactly what I say or you're going to burn in Hell," Brent remembered his uncle saying. "So he put the fear of burning in Hell in me if I do not do what he says." He said the episode caused decades of psychological trouble. "Nightmares," Brent Jeffs said in the 2005 interview, "worse than any nightmare you could ever imagine. And I have to live with it now and for the rest of my life."

Other witnesses in the Texas trial have described conditions in the FLDS community that were widely reported in Utah years ago, including the Gestapo-like control from Jeffs' headquarters in Hildale, Utah. "Very bizarre," a former member told KSL in 2004. "Very bizarre and uh, fanatical." The former member, who fled to the Canadian border to get away from the climate of fear, spoke anonymously in 2004 because he was fearful that Jeffs would do something to hurt his family.

Some of the stranger edicts from Jeffs, which are now getting widely publicized because of the Texas court proceedings, were reported years ago in Utah by former members who shared their concerns with reporters. Jeffs issued edicts banning everyday things like television, dancing, CD's and even dogs, many of which were killed.

He also prohibited any use of the color red. One witness in Texas last week deliberately wore a red blouse on the witness stand, waving a sort of flag of independence in Jeffs' face. Rebecca Musser was once a prominent member of the group because she was spiritually married to Warren's father Rulon when he was considered the FLDS prophet. At the time of the marriage, he was 84 and she was 19. She later left the group and has been helping Texas Rangers interpret FLDS documents that were used as evidence in the trial.

Testimony in Texas has also verified a disturbing power tactic of Jeffs that was the subject of news reports in Utah for years. He has frequently punished followers he suspects of disloyalty by reassigning their wives and children to other men. Prosecutors now say he has torn 300 families apart, presumably with devastating emotional consequences for thousands of people. The fear of such tactics over the years may have helped Jeffs keep members in line and strengthen his grip on the community.

The former member who fled to the Canadian border said Jeffs was "abusing people, taking advantage of people, fleecing them of their money, all in the name of earning your salvation." Much of that went on without law enforcement attention as Jeffs gained nearly absolute power over 10,000 or so followers.

The psychological damage is clear: two of the Utah witnesses who testified on Saturday had brothers who committed suicide.

When testimony wraps up this week, the jury will decide if Jeffs should spend the rest of his life in prison.

Email: hollenhorst@ksl.com

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