Eldorado, Texas » Attorneys will hear closing arguments today in the trial of a polygamous sect member whom the state alleges sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 2004.

Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther told jurors Wednesday that "we are getting very close" to the final stage of Raymond Merril Jessop's trial and asked them to bring a packed suitcase in case lengthy deliberations require them to be sequestered. The jury heard from three witnesses before recessing, including a law professor who said Jessop could not have legally married a second person because he was already married and a former FLDS member who testified about the importance of record-keeping in the sect.

The state alleges Jessop sexually assaulted the now 21-year-old woman in 2004, several months after she became his spiritual wife at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Yearning For Zion Ranch is home to members of the FLDS sect. It was raided by Texas Rangers and state child welfare officials in April 2008, and that is when -- prosecutors say -- they uncovered evidence against Jessop and others.

The state alleges Jessop sexually assaulted the now 21-year-old woman in 2004, several months after she became his spiritual wife.

John "Jack" Samson, a University of Texas law professor who specializes in family law, testified Wednesday that because

Jessop was legally married to another woman in Utah in 1994, the alleged victim could not have been his spouse in 2004.

That is one of four elements of the crime the state set out to prove a week ago to make its case against Jessop. Using birth certificates, prosecutor Eric Nichols also has shown the alleged victim was under the legal age of consent in Texas when the alleged offense occurred. DNA experts testified that Jessop is the father of a child the alleged victim gave birth to in 2005.

Using the alleged victim's photo album, the state showed the jury that she and Jessop were at the ranch in 2004, though not specifically at the time she allegedly became his spiritual wife or conceived a child.

The most interesting testimony Wednesday came from a woman who once was married to the former FLDS prophet, Rulon T. Jeffs, about the spiritual significance of record-keeping.

Musser told the jury about attending and then teaching at Alta Academy, a private school formerly operated by the FLDS church in the Salt Lake Valley.

Musser, 33, speaking in a soft voice that was barely audible even with a microphone, told the jury she was 19 when she was married to the elder Jeffs, father of now FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs.

Musser left the FLDS community in 2002, two months after Rulon T. Jeffs died, and now lives in Idaho. She is a sister of Elissa Wall, and testified in 2007 during the criminal trial of FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs in Utah.

She told the Schleicher County jury the prophet controlled "every area of our lives," she said, from clothing to hair styles to how followers interacted with one another.

For women, getting married was "the most important step" in their lives, Musser said.

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

Musser said church members are taught to keep detailed records of marriages, blessings, births, baptisms and other significant church-related events necessary to achieve exaltation in the afterlife.The events are noted in a "Book of Remembrance" which corresponds with a "Book of Life" kept in heaven.

The prophet, who is accountable to God, is responsible for ensuring those records are "absolutely and impeccably accurate," Musser said.

The defense has argued to limit use of those records , which include dictations made by Warren S. Jeffs found in a vault at the Temple Annex on the ranch. Walther ruled that as church records the documents are not hearsay -- though defense attorney Mark Stevens noted at one point that a record of an exchange between Jeffs and the Lord poses "more than the standard hearsay."

Walther allowed most of the documents to be admitted after the state heavily redacted information not related to Jessop and his alleged victim.