Jeffs gained international notoriety in May 2006 when he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of illegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls. He was arrested in August 2006 in Nevada, and agreed to be taken to Utah for trial. In May and July 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts, including sexual conduct with minors and incest, in two separate cases.
His Utah trial, which began in early September 2007 in St. George, Utah, lasted less than a month, and on September 25 the verdict was read declaring him guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice. On November 20, 2007 he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life and began serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison. Jeffs' conviction was reversed by Utah's Supreme Court on July 27, 2010 because of incorrect jury instructions.
He was extradited to Texas, where he was found guilty of sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault of children in connection with a raid of an FLDS owned and occupied West Texas ranch in 2008. After the jury had deliberated for less than 30 minutes, 55-year-old Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison plus twenty years and a $10,000 fine, to be served consecutively, for sexual assault of both 12 and 15-year-old girls.
In July 2004, Warren Jeffs' nephew, Brent Jeffs, filed a lawsuit against him alleging that in the late 1980s his uncle sodomized him in the Salt Lake Valley compound then owned by the FLDS Church. Brent Jeffs said he was five or six years old at the time, and that Warren Jeffs' brothers, also named in the lawsuit, watched and participated in the abuse. Two of Warren Jeffs' other nephews also made similar abuse claims against him. One of the alleged victims, Clayne Jeffs, committed suicide with a firearm after accusing Warren Jeffs of sexually assaulting him as a child.
In June 2005, Jeffs was charged with sexual assault on a minor and with conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor for allegedly arranging, in April 2001, a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old first cousin, Allen. The girl, Elissa Wall (then only known as "Jane Doe IV") testified that she begged "Uncle Rulon" to let her wait until she was older, or choose another man for her. Rulon Jeffs was apparently "sympathetic", but Warren Jeffs was not, and she was forced to go through with the marriage. The 14-year-old alleged that her new husband raped her repeatedly and that she repeatedly miscarried. She eventually left Allen and the community. Jeffs faced the above charges in Mohave County, Arizona. In July 2005, the Arizona Attorney General's office distributed wanted posters offering $10,000 for information leading to Jeffs' arrest and conviction.
In late 2005, Jeffs was put on the FBI's most wanted fugitive list, offering $60,000 for information leading to his arrest. Shortly after being placed on the FBI list, Jeffs was featured on the television program America's Most Wanted.
On July 9, 2008, Jeffs was taken from jail in Arizona to a Las Vegas hospital for what the sheriff described as a serious medical problem. Mojave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan did not specify Jeffs' medical problem, but said it was serious enough to move him about 100 miles from Kingman Regional Medical Center to the Las Vegas hospital.
Jeffs has engaged in lengthy fasts, which his doctors and attorneys report have been for spiritual reasons. In August 2009, Superior Court Judge Steve Conn ordered that Jeffs be force fed. Thereafter, Jeffs was fed through a stomach feeding tube.
On August 29, 2011, Jeffs was taken to East Texas Medical Center, Tyler, Texas on Sunday and was hospitalized in critical condition under a medically induced coma after excessive fasting. Officials were not sure how long he will remain hospitalized but Jeffs is expected to live.
Krakauer, Jon (2003), Under the Banner of Heaven, New York: Doubleday, ISBN 9780385509510 — a nonfiction book that explores some of the history of both the LDS church and its spin-off sects, focusing largely on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The book describes illegal activity in the (Fundamentalist) Church, mainly polygyny, statutory rape, murder, and rape.
Jessop, Carolyn; Palmer, Laura (2007), Escape, New York: Broadway Books, ISBN 9780767927567 — a personal account of the deterioration of human rights (especially women's and children's rights) and institutionalized abuse in the FLDS organization under Warren Jeffs' leadership.
Wall, Elissa; Pulitzer, Lisa (2008), Stolen Innocence, New York: William Morrow, ISBN 9780061628016 — an autobiography about a girl inside the FLDS church and her experiences in the community and her escape as well as her accounts in the Warren Jeffs trial.
Singular, Stephen (2008), When Men Become Gods, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 9780312372484 — a book about Warren Jeffs and the FLDS, which chronicles the details of Jeffs' rise to power, the activities of FLDS members in Colorado City and Hildale and their trials. He draws comparisons between the FLDS and Muslim extremists today.
Jeffs, Brent W.; Szalavitz, Maia (2009), Lost Boy, New York: Broadway Books, ISBN 9780767931779 — an autobiography concerning his youth and the crimes his uncle Warren Jeffs committed against him.
Weyermann, Debra (2011), Answer Them Nothing: bringing down the polygamous empire of Warren Jeffs, Chicago: Chicago Review Press, ISBN 9781569765319 — documents the history of the FLDS, including Jeffs' role.
Brower, Sam (2011), Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, New York: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-60819-275-5 — Private Investigator Brower's account of his research about Jeffs and the FLDS and pursuit of justice for them.
In 2005, Phoenix television station KTVK and the station's senior reporter Mike Watkiss broadcast Colorado City and the Underground Railroad. The hour long documentary was the most widely-viewed, locally-produced primetime news special in Arizona history. The documentary went on to win a regional "Emmy" and "Edward R. Murrow Award". The special pulls together dozens of Watkiss' reports on the practice of polygamy, the FLDS Church, and Prophet Warren Jeffs spanning more than three decades.
In 2006, Pawel Gula and Tom Elliott produced the documentary feature Damned to Heaven.[59] The film premiered in Europe at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland. In September 2007, it premiered in the U.S. at the Temecula Valley International Film Festival, where it received honors in the Best Documentary category. The film investigates the practice of plural marriage, and includes 20 minutes of Warren Jeffs' original teachings, recorded for the purpose of "educating" followers. Janusz Kamiński said, after seeing the documentary, "This film is shocking. As a society, we are obligated to see it.
The documentary film Banking on Heaven was released in 2006. It documents Warren Jeffs and the FLDS in Colorado City, Arizona.
On July 19, 2006 Britain's Channel 4 ran the documentary The Man with 80 Wives. The program featured presenter Sanjiv Bhattacharya's unsuccessful search for Warren Jeffs in Colorado, Utah and Texas. Filmed before Jeffs was put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, the documentary features interviews with one of Jeffs' brothers as well as with several excommunicated FLDS members.
In Canada in 2007, CBC's news show The Fifth Estate aired an episode called "Bust Up in Bountiful" focusing on Jeffs's one-time rival, Winston Blackmore, and Blackmore's belief that Jeffs was not only responsible for the split in Bountiful, British Columbia's community, but is also a dangerous man.
In Canada on October 23, 2006 Global ran an hour-long documentary on Global Currents, which followed the lives of excommunicated members and featured their hardships.
In 2007, Main Street Church of Brigham City (formerly Living Hope) released a documentary entitled Lifting the Veil of Polygamy which includes interviews with former members of Warren Jeffs' fundamentalist sect.
In September 2007, the Australian current affairs program A Current Affair sent reporter Amanda Patterson to Utah on a number of occasions to report on the sect. While filming in Colorado City, her crew was persistently harassed and stalked by a number of local men in their pickup trucks. She also attempted to interview a number of men, who saw nothing wrong with what they were doing, and with women, who refused to talk on air.
In the UK on the 5th July 2010, the BBC aired an 80 minute documentary following a group of teenage boys who escape the FDLS in Utah, in its Storyville documentary series.
On January 23, 2007 CTV aired a made-for-TV movie titled In God's Country which tells a fictionalized tale that alludes to FLDS and their behaviors and beliefs.
The HBO show Big Love contains a scene where Roman Grant (played by Harry Dean Stanton), the leader of a fictional fundamentalist and polygamist sect, observes Warren Jeffs being arrested. He refers to him as a pervert and worries that he will ruin things for other polygamist sects.
The Season 3, Episode 12 "Nine Wives" of Numb3rs was based on the FLDS Church. The episode follows the FBI's search for a pedophilic polygamist fugitive.
The Ultimate Sin, a film shown by True Movies, concerns a similar, fictional cult and cites the case of Warren Jeffs as an example.
The Big Gay Sketch Show which airs on Logo had a fictionalization of Warren Jeffs set to the format of Bravo's Real Housewives series.
Follow the Prophet, 2009, a film about a young girl threatened with sexual abuse who fought against "the Prophet", leader of a fundamentalist church.
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