'No means no,' prosecutor tells sect leader's jury

ST. GEORGE, Utah (CNN) -- A prosecutor urged jurors Friday to find polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty of being an accomplice to rape, saying "No means no."

Jeffs is the 51-year-old "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS. He is accused of using his religious influence over his followers to coerce a 14-year-old girl into a marriage she didn't want to an older cousin.

The jury deliberated for a few hours Friday after closing arguments. Deliberations were to resume Monday.

The girl is known in court documents as Jane Doe, but Friday night, her attorneys released her name -- Elissa Wall -- with her consent. Wall is now 21 and married to someone else. She has left the FLDS.

Wall testified that she repeatedly told Jeffs at the time that she did not want to be married and was uncomfortable with sexual advances from her husband, Allen Steed, who was then 19.

Jeffs advised her to pray and to submit to her husband, learn to love him, and bear his children -- or risk losing her "eternal salvation," the woman testified.

Prosecutor Brock Belnap told the eight jurors they needed only to answer this question to find Jeffs guilty: "If Warren Jeffs had listened to [Wall] when she said, "This is not the right thing for me,' would Allen Steed have had sexual intercourse with [Wall]?"

He added, "Whether you are 14 or 40, no means no, but the law provides special protection for those between 14 and 18."

The couple exchanged vows in 2001 before Jeffs at a motel near Las Vegas, Nevada, where many arranged FLDS marriages take place. He gave them the usual blessing.

"Warren Jeffs told them to go forward and multiply and replenish the Earth, and that is why that man is an accomplice to rape," Belnap said.

Prosecutors called just three witnesses during their case, while the defense called nearly a dozen witnesses, including the spurned husband and other FLDS couples who were happy in their arranged marriages. Testimony lasted just under two weeks.

Jeffs, a former teacher and headmaster, has led the 10,000-member FLDS since his father's death in 2002. His father, Rulon Jeffs, was the sect's "prophet" for many years before that.

He has drawn attention to the polygamous FLDS by allegedly excommunicating male followers and reassigning wives and children, arranging marriages to girls as young as 13, and reducing competition for brides by exiling male teens and young men.

Jeffs is facing two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice in connection with marriage. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, are the sect's home base. Whatever the outcome of the Utah trial might be, Jeffs is facing multiple counts in Arizona of being an accomplice to incest and sex with minors. E-mail to a friend

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