Polygamous Sect Leader Convicted After Girls Found in Unventilated Trailer

Samuel Bateman, a polygamous sect leader who is already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence in a child sex abuse case, has been convicted in Arizona on state child abuse charges tied to a 2022 traffic stop where authorities discovered three girls locked inside an enclosed trailer.

A Coconino County jury convicted Bateman on Friday of three counts of child abuse, reaching its decision after roughly 40 minutes of deliberations. His sentencing is set for Aug. 25.

Each child abuse charge carries a mandatory prison sentence ranging from four to eight years. The judge will determine whether Bateman serves the terms concurrently or consecutively.

The charges stemmed from an August 2022 traffic stop in Flagstaff, where police pulled Bateman over after a witness reported seeing children’s fingers protruding through openings in the doors of a trailer he was towing. Officers found three girls, ages 11 to 14 at the time, inside the unventilated trailer, which had a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs.

Prosecutors argued that Bateman knowingly placed the girls in danger by transporting them for hours in hot weather inside a trailer built for cargo rather than passengers.

“It’s common sense that you don’t carry people in a trailer designed for cargo on a hot day with no ventilation,” prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told jurors during closing arguments.

Bateman represented himself at trial, with appointed advisory counsel available. Testifying in his own defense, he denied intending to hurt anyone. He acknowledged under questioning that the trailer was hot and poorly ventilated, but minimized the danger.

“I just trusted myself as a driver,” he said. “I asked God to bless me every time we hopped in that vehicle.”

He claimed he thought the girls had gotten out when they stopped. He said he was as “shocked as could possibly be” when he learned that they were still inside when he was pulled over.

The Arizona case followed Bateman’s federal conviction in a broader abuse and kidnapping conspiracy case. Federal prosecutors accused him of using his status as a self-proclaimed prophet to coerce girls, some as young as 9, into sex acts with him and others. He was also convicted of plotting to remove girls from protective custody.

That federal case drew wider public attention and is featured in the Netflix series “Trust Me: The False Prophet.”

Bateman has previously said he had more than 20 “spiritual wives,” including several underage girls. Authorities have described him as the leader of a small religious offshoot connected to communities along the Arizona-Utah border that have long been associated with polygamous sects.

Federal officials said Bateman traveled through Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska as he built a following linked to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS church has historically been centered in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

Bateman was once considered a trusted follower of Warren Jeffs, the former FLDS leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting children.

The FLDS church practices polygamy, a doctrine rooted in early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mainstream church abandoned polygamy in 1890 and now bars the practice.

The influence of the FLDS church has declined sharply in Colorado City and Hildale. A 2017 court order placed the communities under outside supervision after findings that church control had infected local government and law enforcement. The towns were released from that oversight last year, earlier than expected, after officials cited major changes in local governance and community life.

Practicing members of the sect are now believed to make up only a small share of the population in those towns.