Polygamous sect leader serving 50 years for child sex abuse gets another 24 years

A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal sentence for orchestrating sex involving children was given another 24 years in prison Tuesday on separate state convictions for child abuse for hauling girls in an unventilated trailer in Arizona. 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, aged 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. 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 nine to submit to sex acts with him and other adults and for scheming to kidnap girls from protective custody. Citing an “insane danger” to the girls in the trailer, among other factors, Judge Joshua Steinlage ordered Bateman to serve the state sentence after completing the 50-year federal sentence.

Victims urged the judge to reject Bateman’s claims that he didn’t mean to harm anyone. One victim who was in the trailer when Bateman was pulled over described the psychological pain she suffered. The victim, who was then 14, said Bateman took advantage of her sexually when she was 12.

She said she has had to undergo therapy to recover from “things that should have never happened to me as a child”. Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet, previously claimed to have more than 20 “spiritual wives”, including 10 girls under the age of 18. In the state case, Bateman acknowledged he knew the girls were in a hot trailer for hours and that the ventilation wasn’t good, but he downplayed the conditions.

Bateman had claimed he thought the girls had gotten out when they stopped. He said he was as “shocked as could possibly be” when he learned that they were still inside when he was pulled over. 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.

Bateman was one of the trusted followers of Jeffs, who previously led the sect and is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual assault of children. Bateman was the focus of the Netflix series Trust Me: The False Prophet.