\n<\/p>\n
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — <\/span>A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating sex involving children is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday on separate state convictions<\/a> for hauling girls through a community in northern Arizona in an unventilated trailer.<\/p>\n Samuel Bateman, 50, was convicted of three child abuse counts stemming from an August 2022 traffic stop in Flagstaff that led to the discovery of three girls, ages 11 to 14, in the trailer. It had a makeshift toilet, sofa and camping chairs and lacked air conditioning and seat belts. Someone tipped off authorities about the trailer after seeing small fingers reaching through gaps in the doors.<\/p>\n Each count carries a mandatory sentence between four and eight years. A judge will have discretion to run the counts consecutively or concurrently.<\/p>\n Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the polygamous sect once led by Warren Jeffs, is currently serving 50 years in federal prison for coercing girls as young as 9 to submit to sex acts with him and other adults and for scheming to kidnap girls from protective custody.<\/p>\n Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet, previously claimed to have<\/a> more than 20 \u201cspiritual wives,\u201d including 10 girls under the age of 18.<\/p>\n In the state case, Bateman acknowledged he knew the girls were in a hot trailer for hours and that the ventilation wasn\u2019t good, but he downplayed the conditions.<\/p>\n Bateman, who isn\u2019t a lawyer yet represented himself at trial, claimed he thought the girls had gotten out when they stopped. He said he was as \u201cshocked as could possibly be\u201d when he learned that they were still inside when he was pulled over. <\/p>\n Federal authorities said Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska as he built an offshoot network of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.<\/p>\n He and his followers practiced polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. <\/p>\n Bateman was one of the trusted followers of Jeffs, who previously led the sect<\/a> and is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual assault of children.<\/p>\n