The brother of fugitive Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs has been sentenced for helping to keep him on the run.
Seth Jeffs, 33, was sentenced in a Denver federal courtroom today to three years probation. Speaking briefly in court, Jeffs said he wanted to "just get on with my life."
"I knew what I did was wrong as I was doing it, but I didn't realize the severity of what I was doing," he said. "I did all I can to remove myself from this situation . . . I never want to find myself in that situation again."
Jeffs was convicted of a single federal charge of harboring or concealing a person from arrest. He admitted to helping keep his brother on the run from the FBI and local police.
In October 2005, Jeffs and Nathaniel Allred were stopped in Pueblo, Colo., by police for driving erratically. Inside their Ford Excursion, police seized $142,000 in cash, pre-paid phone cards, credit cards, seven cell phones and even a donation jar with a label that read "Pennies for the Prophet."
Police said letters seized asked Warren Jeffs for advice on a number of issues and discussed an on-going project Jeffs was involved in — editing a compendium of his father's sermons.
According to plea deal documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News, Seth Jeffs told FBI agents he had been travelling to the FLDS Church's temple site in Eldorado, Texas about once a month. He was acting on behalf of FLDS Church Bishop William Jessop, delivering letters and and money "so that Warren Jeffs can do what he wants to do."
Seth Jeffs has refused to reveal his brother's location to FBI agents. He pleaded guilty straight-up to the charges and is therefore not required to tell them anything about where Warren Jeffs is.
Warren Jeffs remains on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He has been charged in Utah and Arizona with sex crimes related to forcing teenage girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Federal prosecutors have charged the polygamist leader with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.
For more details, see tomorrow's edition of the Deseret Morning News.
Contributing: Associated Press.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com