Merrill Leroy Jessop
Posted on 03/19/2010 5:07:39 PM PDT by deport
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 of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was a resident of the sect’s YFZ Ranch outside of Eldorado.
“We’re extremely disappointed,” lead defense attorney Dan Hurley said outside the Tom Green County courthouse after the sentence was announced. “We felt the jury received evidence not accurate or true.” .......
Lead Prosecutor Eric Nichols said he was satisfied with the sentence.
“Justice was again served in Texas,” Nichols said. .....
The next trial is for Lehi Barlow Jeffs for sexual assault of a child on April 26.
Eight more men from the YFZ Ranch are under indictments because of evidence from the raid, Nichols said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at gosanangelo.com ...
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So can we expect the authorities to go after the Towelheads next?
And now they will crack down on polygamist muzzies, right?
= = = crickets = = =
Texas sounds like my kind of state.
Ping for polygamy justice.
Good
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Wonder if he’ll get speshall treatment ???
Child rapists (which is what he is) are the least popular in prison. You better bet that he will not enjoy his stay.
GOD, I LOVE TEXAS!!!!!
If they are marrying underage girls, they can.
Put him in a cell with a guy named “Bubba” ...
Texas age of consent is 17. However, “...It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the actor...was not more than three years older than the victim and of the opposite sex...(and) did not use duress, force, or a threat against the victim at the time of the offence” and is not a registered sex offender {Section 21.11(b)}.
Which means if Jessop was 18 instead of 30, he would not have been charged at all, since the girl was 15. In addition, 4 States have ages of consent of 15 years or under, and 34 States have ages of consent of 16 - only one year more than the age of the girl.
Why is this relevent? For sentencing purposes. Jessop was technically guilty, but of a crime that barely fit the definition, even in Texas except for his age. Yet he gets - 75 years - in prison? That’s utterly insane - murderers and rapists don’t get that much. In addition, he married the girl and has a child by her - so his wife is without a husband, and his child without a father - forever. In the mean time, murderers, rapists, and other dangerous felons he meets decade after decade in prison will be released.
This is just wrong. The government wildly overreached in their raid and now need a dramatic criminal fall guy to justify their insane attack against that church, which has been struck down as excessive and unjustified in review after review.
75 years is the judicial murder of a fall guy.
Maybe Leroy should have went for a plea bargin. I bet some of the others just may now that a jury has given a sentence.
This has been the first trial decided by a Tom Green County jury.
The previous highest sentence was 33 years in the trial of Allan Keate. Raymond Merril Jessop, Merril Leroy Jessop’s half brother, got 10 years and $8,000 as a second degree felony since his offense occurred before changes in law. Michael Emack also was charged under a second-degree felony and he plead no contest for a seven-year sentence.
Jeffs resigned from the presidency of the FLDS Church on the day he was sentenced.[8] There are also reports that Jeffs admitted his position of prophet in the FLDS Church was a usurpation in a conversation to his brother, and declared that "Brother William E. Jessop has been the prophet since [my] Father's passing", though Jeffs' attorneys have claimed he misspoke.[9]
Merril Jessop and wives; Cathleen, Ruth, Faunita, Tammy, Barbara and Carolyn Jessop.
Heck if he was gay he would qualify for a spot in the Obama Administration. The precedent has already been set.
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