Key facts
- Polygamous sect leader Samuel Bateman was sentenced to 24 years in prison for child abuse.
- Bateman is already serving a 50-year federal sentence for sex crimes involving children.
- The state convictions stem from transporting three girls, aged 11 to 14, in an unventilated trailer in August 2022.
- The judge ordered the state sentence to be served consecutively to the federal sentence.
- Bateman led an offshoot of the polygamous sect historically led by Warren Jeffs.
A polygamous sect leader, Samuel Bateman, has received an additional 24-year prison sentence on state child abuse convictions in Arizona, to be served consecutively to his existing 50-year federal sentence for sex crimes involving children. Bateman, 50, was convicted of three child abuse counts after authorities discovered three girls, aged 11 to 14, in an unventilated trailer during an August 2022 traffic stop in Flagstaff. The trailer lacked air conditioning and seat belts.
Bateman, who represented himself, claimed he had no intention to harm the girls, but victims described the profound psychological pain and the loss of their childhoods. He acknowledged the poor ventilation in the trailer but downplayed the conditions. Bateman led an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group historically based in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, and was a follower of Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence for child sexual assault. Bateman was also the subject of the Netflix series 'Trust Me: The False Prophet'.