Samuel Shaffer (pictured), 34, told a court that he wanted to start a family and grow old with an eight-year-old girl
A self-styled Utah prophet told a court that he wanted to start a family and grow old with an eight-year-old girl after he pleaded guilty to child sodomy.
Samuel Shaffer, 34, was jailed last month for 26 years to life for child rape and abuse after he ‘secretly married young girls’ because of his beliefs in polygamy and doomsday.
He received a second sentence of 15 years to life on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to one count of child sodomy.
During his sentencing, Shaffer told the court that he ‘sincerely believed that child marriage was a correct principle from God,’ according to the Deseret News.
But, he admitted that he’s ‘seen the consequences of what’s happened, and I know that I shouldn’t have done it now’.
‘I sincerely believed that the practice was correct at the time,’ Shaffer added.
In response, Judge Marvin Bagley said: ‘I’m not aware of any religion in this world that justifies an adult having a sexual relationship with an eight-year-old girl.’
The judge allowed Shaffer’s new prison sentence to run at the same time as his first one.
Shaffer, 34, was jailed last month for 26 years to life for child rape and abuse after he ‘secretly married young girls’ because of his beliefs in polygamy and doomsday. He received a second sentence of 15 years to life Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to one count of child sodomy
Shaffer (left) and his friend John Coltharp, 34, (right) formed a group called Knights of the Crystal Blade, which was based on arcane Mormon ideas that have long been abandoned by the mainstream church
In May, Shaffer was sentenced to 26 years to life after pleading guilty to child rape and abuse charges.
He was charged after police raided his remote desert compound in Utah in December that was built to house an upstart group called Knights of the Crystal Blade.
But the sentence handed down to Shaffer on Wednesday won’t extend his prison term, according to Deseret News.
Shaffer and his friend, John Coltharp, 34, formed the group based on arcane Mormon ideas that have long been abandoned by the mainstream church.
Four girls, including Shaffer’s two daughters, were found during the raid.
They had been hidden in 50-gallon plastic water barrels and an abandoned trailer near the makeshift compound made of shipping containers about 275 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Shaffer and Coltharp believed they each were married to two young girls, prosecutors said.
Child kidnapping and additional abuse courts against Shaffer were dropped when he pleaded guilty in an agreement that kept the girl from having to testify.
Shaffer tried to withdraw from the deal at one point but a judge denied the move.
Prosecutors said the two men conducted secret marriages they thought were ordained by God in Sanpete County before they decamped to the compound.
Authorities believe the two men each held the title of prophet at different points, Coltharp most recently.
Each man secretly married two girls, ages four through eight, prosecutors have said.
They both married a relative of the other, according to court documents.
Authorities said the two older girls were sexually abused by the two men, but it doesn’t appear the two younger girls were.
The charges were filed after sheriff’s deputies descended on the rural Iron County compound with helicopters and dogs after the mother of two of the girls reported them missing, along with two of her sons.
Both men had taken the children there months before in preparation for an apocalypse or in hopes of gaining followers.
Four girls, including Shaffer’s two daughters, were found during a raid. They were hidden in 50-gallon plastic water barrels and inside an abandoned trailer near the makeshift compound (above)
The boys were found in the makeshift compound, but it took police another day to find the girls in the barrels and trailer.
After Shaffer told police where to find them, the children were treated successfully for the effects of cold and symptoms of dehydration.
Coltharp pleaded guilty to sodomy and child bigamy charges in a central Utah courtroom on June 13.
He agreed to the plea deal in Manti, Utah, in exchange for prosecutors dropping kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges.
‘I am guilty. That is a fact,’ he said.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 8. He faces up to life in prison.
A third man who joined the group after meeting its founders on Facebook, Robert Shane Roe, 34, was charged with child sexual abuse earlier this month.
Roe, of Castro, California, met the two founders of the group in a Facebook discussion group last year and traveled out to Utah where he was given a ‘bride’ – a five-year-old girl related to one of the men, prosecutor Kevin Daniels said.
Investigators knew previously that Roe was involved in the group, but the girl only recently revealed what happened when she was alone with him, said Daniels, the Sanpete County Attorney in central Utah.
Roe was charged with sodomy of a child for the alleged activity in August 2017.
Daniels said Roe acknowledges being alone with the girl, but denies abusing her.
She is the third girl victimized by men in the group, Daniels said.
Two other followers are cooperating with investigators, but could face charges for obstruction of justice in the future.