Lyle Jeffs to serve up to five years in prison after guilty plea

A Utah polygamous sect leader who spent a year on the run will serve up to five years in prison after pleading guilty in a food-stamp fraud case on Wednesday.

Lyle Jeffs, charged in the multimillion-dollar scheme as well as his escape from home confinement, entered the plea in federal court in Salt Lake City.

"We're not out to punish people of faith," U.S. Attorney John Huber told the Salt Lake Tribune. "We're not out to punish people with sincerely held beliefs. We're out to punish fraudsters."

Lyle Jeffs was one of 11 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints charged last year. He was awaiting trial when he slipped off his ankle monitor and escaped in June of 2016.

He was recaptured in South Dakota this summer while apparently living out of his pickup truck. He had been struggling without the help of other sect members after falling out with sect leader and brother Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual assault of underage brides.

Food-stamp benefits were funneled to pay for items including a tractor and a truck, according to prosecutors.

Lyle Jeffs is facing up to four years on a fraud count, plus one year in connection to his escape, according to the Tribune. He has also been ordered to pay $1 million.

"I don‘t think he has it, but if he does, we will find it," Huber told the Tribune.

The other defendants received plea deals or saw their charges dismissed.

The group is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, which disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

Jeffs will be sentenced in December.

With News Wire Services

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