ELDORADO, Texas, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A resident of a polygamist compound in Texas was convicted Tuesday of sexually assaulting a child, a teenager given to him as a wife.

Allan Eugene Keate, 57, was led from a Schleicher County courtroom in handcuffs, The San Angelo Standard-Times reported. The penalty phase of his trial begins Wednesday, and he could get a life sentence.


Prosecutors said Keate was married to the underage girl in 2006 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a compound founded by the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter-Day Saints, a dissident Mormon group.

Keate was arrested after a 2008 raid on the ranch inspired by a telephone call that later proved to be a hoax.

The prosecution witnesses included a DNA expert who testified Keate had fathered a baby born to the teenager.

Some of the most dramatic testimony came Monday from Rebecca Musser, who was once married to Rulon Jeffs, the FLDS prophet. She told the jury she and other younger wives were ordered to marry Warren Jeffs after his father's death.

She said she decided to flee when Warren Jeffs threatened her: "I will break you. I will make you a

good wife. You have one week."