The State of Texas awaits the jury's decision on his sentence, but even the NYT cared enough about the outcome of the Eldorado, Texas, trial to report the verdict. The jury found him guilty in fewer than four hours.

Seen in an AP photo, below, as he was escorted away from the courthouse, Jessop could be sent to a Texas prison for up to 20 years. San Angelo Standard-Times' coverage indicates evidence confirming his paternity of a 4-year-old girl caused fireworks in the courtroom.

And if you want to know why it is my hope that Mr. Jessop meets, up close and in person, the tender mercies of the TDCJ inmates regarding child rapists, read this excerpt regarding what happened to the girl he raped.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

If there's a hell, maybe God will see fit to send Warren Jeffs to burn in it forever.
He's the instigator, the 'spiritual leader', the head of this 'church' -- he's the FLDS version of Rush Limbaugh, with his portrait everywhere, including where women in childbirth must see it.

There are 11 more indictments in Schleicher County. May FSM, Ceiling Cat and all the gods protect and bless District Judge Barbara Walther, the prosecutors, the investigators, and the victims whose lives these "religious leaders" destroyed.

There's a post at Whenceforth Progress on a related matter -- the other news out of Texas yesterday that made national headlines. We know that 13 people were slain and 30 wounded when a US Army Major opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. What we don't know yet is why.

But if, as rumor has it, religion played a part --