SAN ANGELO, Texas, June 16 (UPI) -- A jury has been seated in Texas to hear a sexual-assault case against a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, observers say.
Abram Harker Jeffs is charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony usually punishable by a sentence of 2 to 20 years, The San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times reported Wednesday.
State prosecutors plan to ask for an enhanced penalty that could put Jeffs in prison for 99 years, the newspaper said.
Jeffs, 39, is the brother of Warren S. Jeffs, the FLDS' leader presently serving two five-to-life sentences in Utah for rape as an accomplice for conducting an underage marriage.
In an opening statement, prosecutor Eric Nichols alleged Abram Jeffs impregnated a 15-year-old girl in 2006 after entering a "celestial" or "spiritual" marriage with her when she was 14 while legally married in another state.
Defense attorney Brandon Hudson told jurors the state's evidence and documents should be inadmissible.
"They are all out-of-court hearsay," Hudson said. "Their witnesses will be pieces of paper."
Jeffs' trial is the sixth since a 2008 investigation of the FLDS Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas. Other defendants have received sentences for various offenses ranging from 7 years to 75 years, the Standard-Times reported.
