The bigamy trial for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has been postponed, a West Texas court clerk said Wednesday.
No new date was immediately set.
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Also delayed Wednesday was the trial of former Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints president Wendell Nielsen, the Schleicher County clerk said. Nielsen is charged with three counts of bigamy in spiritual unions to middle-aged women. Nielsen, 70, rejected a 10-years-probation plea deal because the conditions were too strict and opted to go to trial instead.
Nielsen, who was set to go to trial later this month, also did not immediately get a new trial date.His defense attorney, David Botsford of Austin, said he anticipated a hearing to set a new trial date "in the not too distant future."
Prosecutors moved to delay Jeffs’ bigamy trial last week, citing "judicial economy" and pointing out that Jeffs has already been sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison for sexual assault of a child. Jeffs, 56, was convicted in August of assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, whom he took as plural wives.
Prosecutor Eric Nichols suggested moving the bigamy trial to an unspecified date in late 2012. A pretrial hearing was set for Friday and his trial had been scheduled to begin Feb. 15.
Jeffs’ felony bigamy charge deals with one of the two sexual assault victims. Prosecutors presented evidence during his sexual assault trial that he has 78 wives.
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