Samuel Bateman

Samuel Rappylee Bateman is an American convicted sex offender who led a small polygamous splinter sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) based in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah — an area known as Short Creek. Self-styled as a prophet and successor to imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, Bateman assembled more than 20 "spiritual wives" between 2019 and 2022, at least 10 of whom were minors, with victims as young as nine years old. He was arrested in 2022, pleaded guilty in April 2024, and was sentenced in December 2024 to 50 years in federal prison.