Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Sanpete County, Utah, USA · 2018

United States: doomsday-splinter leaders imprisoned for 'marrying' each other's small daughters

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

leaders of the 'Knights of the Crystal Blade', a doomsday splinter of Latter-day Saint tradition

Organization

Knights of the Crystal Blade

Spiritual nexus

Doctrinal coercion in its purest form: children assigned as wives by revelation, in a sect whose entire authority was the two men's claimed prophetic standing.

  • Prophecy or divine command
  • Religious marriage or family control

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2018-06-14 · guilty pleas and sentences

    Sixth District Court, Sanpete County; Fifth District Court, Cedar City, Utah. John Coltharp and Samuel Shaffer, leaders of the 'Knights of the Crystal Blade' splinter sect, each 'married' the other's daughter — girls of seven and eight — under the group's revelation claims. Coltharp pleaded guilty in June 2018 to child sodomy and child bigamy and Shaffer to child rape and child abuse; both were sentenced to twenty-six years to life. It was the first prosecution under Utah's child-bigamy statute.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • revelation claims used to designate children as 'wives'
  • child bigamy prosecuted under Utah's statute for the first time

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting plea report Deseret News: Coltharp's guilty plea.

Court report of the plea.

national broadcaster court reporting sentencing report Fox 13: Shaffer's sentencing.

Corroborating sentencing report.

Related record

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