Forty minutes. That’s all the jury needed to nail Samuel Bateman.
The self-proclaimed prophet, already rotting in federal prison on a 50-year stretch for child sex crimes, just added state child abuse convictions to his resume. This time, the charges stemmed from three young girls stuffed into a sweltering, windowless cargo trailer he was hauling through Arizona.
It happened in August 2022. A passerby near Flagstaff noticed something horrifying: tiny fingers poking through the gaps of a trailer door. Police pulled Bateman over. Inside the metal box, they found three girls, ages 11 to 14, breathing stale air alongside a makeshift toilet, a couch, and some camping chairs.
Bateman, who insisted on representing himself, tried the pious driver defense. He told the court he trusted God to bless his road trips. He knew it was hot. He knew the air was bad. Yet, he claimed he was shocked to find the kids still inside when the cops showed up. The prosecutor didn’t buy the act, pointing out the obvious: you don’t haul human beings like freight on a scorching summer day.
This is the same guy who claimed over 20 spiritual wives, half of them minors. His exploits even spawned a Netflix documentary, “Trust Me: The False Prophet.” Bateman used to run with Warren Jeffs, the infamous FLDS leader currently serving life in Texas. He tried to build his own breakaway empire across the West, preaching a brand of polygamy the mainstream Mormon church banned back in 1890.
The jury wasn’t supposed to know about his federal record, but Bateman kept blabbing about it anyway. The judge threw those comments out, but the jury didn’t need them. They convicted him on all three counts. He faces four to eight years per charge at his August 25 sentencing. Meanwhile, the old polygamous strongholds on the Utah-Arizona border are moving on, slowly purging the ghosts of prophets like Bateman from their local governments.
