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SAN ANGELO, Texas — In the harshest sentence yet for members of a Texas polygamist group, a Tom Green County jury has sentenced Merril Leroy Jessop, 35, to 75 years in prison and imposed a $10,000 fine on one count of sexual assault of a child. The jury deliberated on the sentence from 10:30 a.m. today until 2:35 p.m. Jessop was convicted Wednesday on allegations that he illegally married and fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl while living at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County in 2006. He is a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Allan Keate raised his two cuffed hands Thursday, shortly after he heard the sentence of 33 years in prison for sexual assault of a child, and smiled briefly at the gallery, at more than a dozen fellow members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — men and women, adults young and old. They had sat there regularly for more than a week to follow Keate’s fate. Lead defense attorney Randy Wilson went to the FLDS members after Keate was escorted to the nearby Schleicher County Jail. Wilson embraced one of the...

The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Lawyers...

Yearning For Zion Ranch, Texas » Betty Jane Jessop's favorite phrase: "Good grief!" That's what Betty utters as she reads the new epilogue in her mother's best-selling book, Escape . In those pages, Carolyn Jessop describes her daughter's return to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, calling her brainwashed. "It just makes me want to laugh," said Betty, 19, shaking her head. Besides Carolyn herself, the character in Escape that most intrigues readers is Betty -- the second of Carolyn's eight children with FLDS bishop Merril Jessop. Why, they ask, did Betty return to the sect...

The 72-year-old presiding elder of a breakaway polygamist Mormon sect and two other church members surrendered to Schleicher County authorities on Monday to face felony charges relating to the underage marriage of girls to older men. Fredrick Merril Jessop, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a felony. According to authorities, one of his daughters was married to jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs at age 12 and is now the only child from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in foster care after...

The Success has learned that William Sunderland Jessop, 29, died Thursday, July 31, 2008, of unknown causes at the YFZ Ranch. The official cause of death has not been released pending an autopsy but, authorities say they do not suspect foul play. Jessop was the son of YFZ overseer Merril F. Jessop. He is believed to be survived by two wives and at least six children, as well as his parents and numerous brothers and sisters.

A lawyer for the 16-year-old daughter of polygamist group leader Warren Jeffs is requesting a restraining order to prevent a spokesman for the group from intimidating and harassing the girl. The request for a restraining order against Willie Jessop was filed in San Angelo today by Natalie Malonis. The teenager was one of the hundreds of children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch by Texas Child Protective Services in April because investigators believed they were exposed to abuse by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her name is not being disclosed because Malonis...

In studio with Michael, its Carolyn Jessop sharing with Michael her take on what is going on with the Texas FLDS fight over the children.

When Texas authorities seized 416 children in a raid on a compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Americans quickly learned that the religious group encourages polygamy and the marriage of young girls to older men. Escape, a memoir published last fall, offers a more detailed portrait of life with the FLDS. In the book, Carolyn Jessop, a sixth-generation polygamist describes her life as the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, who ran the recently raided Texas compound. Carolyn left Merril in 2003, before he moved to Texas, but her memoir sheds light on the man and...