Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was convicted of two counts of child sexual abuse Thursday afternoon. He faces a strong possibility of life in prison.
Jurors in the San Angelo, Texas, trial deliberated for less than four hours before announcing their verdict against Jeffs, who showed no reaction.
Prosecutors alleged Jeffs raped two girls, ages 12 and 14, and that he fathered a child with one of them. The jurors concluded he was in fact guilty.
Jeffs represented himself and said little during his closing argument.
The trial ended with a very bizarre summation in which the 55-year-old stared silently at the jury for 24 minutes, then muttered, “I am at peace.”
Jeffs calls himself the prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot banned by the Mormons.
His theology calls for men to have three wives to be admitted to heaven. The self-proclaimed “living prophet” of God will be sentenced soon.