DNA evidence, ‘sex tape’ implicate Jeffs, prosecutors say
After he fired his team of high-profile attorneys, Warren Jeffs sat silent Thursday as Texas prosecutors began to lay out evidence that he sexually assaulted two underage girls — including an audiotape of one alleged assault on a 12-year-old.
The state also has DNA evidence that he fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl, said prosecutor Eric Nichols.
Jeffs, the 55-year-old leader of a polygamous sect, is accused of taking both girls as plural wives.
As court opened Thursday morning, Jeffs insisted upon representing himself in a rambling 30-minute speech.
With his hands clasped in front of him, chin down, Jeffs looked straight ahead and paused frequently as he spoke in a lilting, sermon-like voice. He told the judge he wanted more time to prepare his own “pure defense,” saying he wanted the “truth to be presented in a way that entails the knowledge thereof.”
Texas District Judge Barbara Walther reluctantly granted the request.