Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Friday 29 June 2018

Self-styled Utah prophet gets additional 15-year prison term

said he had placed them "I sincerely believed that sexual relationship with an
to protect them from the child marriage was a cor- 8-year-old girl," the judge
winter weather. rect principle from God. said. "Certainly it's a viola-
The men had taken the And I've seen the conse- tion of Utah law."
children to the compound quences of what's hap- A third man, Robert Shane
months before in prepara- pened, and I know that Roe, 34, of Castro, Califor-
tion for an apocalypse or in I shouldn't have done it nia, was charged earlier
hopes of gaining followers, now," Shaffer said. "But I this month with sodomy of
authorities said. sincerely believed that the a child in connection with
At the hearing Wednesday, practice was correct at the the group. He allegedly
Shaffer told Judge Marvin time." met the cult's founders in a
Bagley that he had hoped "I'm not aware of any re- Facebook discussion group
to have a family and grow ligion in this world that jus- last year and traveled to
old with one of the girls. tifies an adult having a Utah to join them.q

In this Feb. 20, 2018, file photo, Samuel Shaffer appears during
a court hearing in Cedar City, Utah.
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A determining his parole,
self-styled prophet who prosecutors said.
led a doomsday cult and Prosecutors say Shaffer led
secretly married young a group called the Knights
girls because of his beliefs of the Crystal Blade based
in polygamy and has al- on arcane Mormon ideas
ready been sentenced to long abandoned by the
26 years in prison has been mainstream church.
given a 15-year term fol- He and his fellow self-styled
lowing another guilty plea. prophet, John Coltharp,
Samuel Shaffer, 35, was 34, proclaimed to each se-
sentenced Wednesday in cretly marry two young girls
Manti, Utah, after pleading aged 4 through 8 related to
guilty to one felony count the other man.
of child sodomy, the De- Coltharp pleaded guilty to
seret News reported . Other sodomy and child bigamy
charges including bigamy, charges earlier this month.
lewdness involving a child His sentencing is scheduled
and an additional sodomy for August.
count were dropped in ex- Shaffer was charged in De-
change for the guilty plea. cember 2017 after police
He had previously plead- with helicopters and dogs
ed guilty to separate child raided a remote makeshift
rape and abuse charges desert compound made
in another Utah court, and out of shipping containers
was sentenced last month about 275 miles (440 kilo-
to at least 26 years in prison. meters) south of Salt Lake
The new sentence will be City. Authorities found the
served concurrently and girls hiding in flimsy plastic
won't extend his prison term barrels and a nearby aban-
but will be reviewed when doned trailer where Shaffer