Warren Jeffs should be in Arizona within a few weeks

(AP Photo)

PHOENIX (AP) -- Polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs should be in Arizona late this month or in early March to face charges in the marriages of two teenage girls and older men, a prosecutor said Monday.

"He should be here fairly soon," Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith told The Associated Press.

He said Utah is signing the last of the paperwork. The Mohave County sheriff's office is working with Utah authorities on when deputies can get Jeffs.

He will make a court appearance when he gets to Arizona, but Smith said it's unclear when Jeffs' trial will start.

"He's got attorneys and they're going to file motions, and we're going to have hearings and interviews and depositions," he said.

Defense attorney Mike Piccarreta said he has been requesting that Jeffs be brought to Arizona as soon as possible. In Utah, Jeffs is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for rape by accomplice.

"We wanted this process to begin sooner rather than later and we're hoping that it's about to begin," Piccarreta said.

"Mr. Jeffs did not get a fair shake in Utah, and in large part due to where the trial was located, and I think unless Mr. Jeffs gets a trial in a fair venue here in Arizona, any outcome is subject to public skepticism, and properly so," Piccarreta said.

He said he will ask the judge to move the trial outside of Kingman because of its proximity to Washington County, Utah, where Jeffs' trial was held in September.

Jeffs, 52, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members practice polygamy in arranged marriages that often involve placing young girls with older men.

He faces four felony charges in a 2005 case involving the marriages of two teenage girls and older men who were their relatives. Jeffs also is charged as an accomplice with four counts of incest and four counts of sexual contact with a minor.

The FLDS church is based in the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., home to about 6,000 residents. It is not affiliated with the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in Salt Lake City.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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