Warren Jeffs is a Californian?

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Today we have a guest post! This comes from my partner-in-crime at the Warren Jeffs trial this week, Trib reporter Nate Carlisle.

San Angelo, Texas - Get him some surfer shorts and medical marijuana. Warren Jeffs was born in California. One of the more peculiar pieces of evidence entered Tuesday was Warren Jeffs birth certificate and his personal church records, which showed he was born in December of 1953 in Sacramento. A lot of personal records of FLDS members have been entered into evidence here to show ages and relationships. Most places of birth have been in Salt Lake City or Hildale. Jeffs is the first California birth I have seen, and in my five years of off and on coverage of the FLDS, I've never heard of any an FLDS community there. So how did the prophet of the FLDS come to be born in the Golden State? During a recess Tuesday, one of Jeffs' sisters, Elaine Jeffs, who is not a member of the sect, pointed out her brother was born months after the 1953 Arizona law enforcement raid on Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale. A lot of people in those communities went into hiding, Elaine Jeffs said. Warren Jeffs' mother went to Sacramento, though Elaine Jeffs doesn't know why his mother chose that place.

*Update: An earlier version of this post implied Elaine and Warren Jeffs had the same mother. In fact, the siblings had different mothers.