FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Samuel Bateman, a self-proclaimed polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence, was convicted by an Arizona jury on Friday on three state counts of child abuse.
The Traffic Stop and Discovery
The state case stems from an August 2022 incident in Flagstaff. A concerned citizen alerted authorities after spotting small fingers reaching through the gaps of an enclosed cargo trailer’s doors.
Flagstaff police pulled over Bateman’s vehicle and discovered three young girls, aged 11 to 14, trapped inside. The cargo trailer was unventilated and outfitted only with a makeshift toilet, a sofa, and camping chairs on a hot summer day.
Defense and Jury Verdict
Bateman, who represented himself during the trial, testified that he did not realize the girls were still inside the trailer when he was stopped. However, during cross-examination, he acknowledged knowing the girls had been in the hot, poorly ventilated trailer for hours earlier in the trip.
“It’s common sense that you don’t carry people in a trailer designed for cargo on a hot day with no ventilation,” Prosecutor Eric Ruchensky told the jury during closing arguments.
The jury deliberated for just 40 minutes before returning a guilty verdict on all counts.
Sentencing and Background
Each child abuse count carries a mandatory sentence of four to eight years. The judge will decide during an August 25 sentencing hearing whether those terms will run consecutively or concurrently with his existing 50-year federal sentence.
Bateman was previously an associate of imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs. He built a small offshoot network of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), operating across Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska.
