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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Mohave County, Ariz., jury on Friday convicted a Colorado City, Ariz., man of having sex with a 16-year old girl and conspiracy to commit sex with a minor, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Kelly Fischer, 38, is a member of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Several other men face identical charges, with the next trial postponed until next month.
Fischer's sentencing is set for Aug. 4. The crimes are punishable by up to four months to two years in prison or probation.
He was not considered a flight risk and was released until then, the Tribune reported.
In Fischer's three-day jury trial in Kingman, Ariz., Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith chiefly relied on testimony from former members and birth certificates to make his case.
Birth certificates showed the girl was just over 17 when she gave birth to a child in Utah in 2001. The child's birth certificate lists Fischer, then 33, as the father.
Two former FLDS members testified Thursday about a culture of secret marriages, arranged within hours with the approval of the faith's prophet, and about seeing Fischer and the girl together.
Bruce Griffen, Fischer's attorney, characterized testimony from the former members as "guess, assumption and speculation," the Tribune reported.
He had asked the judge to find the state failed to make its case because it did not pin down where Fischer and the girl had sex or that anyone else was involved in arranging the union. But Judge Steven F. Conn refused and sent the case to the jury.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
