PHOENIX (CN) — As trial nears for the former polygamist church leader accused of sexually abusing 10 underage girls he took as child brides, more of his adult wives are taking plea deals instead of fighting the charges alongside him.
Brenda Barlow became the third wife of Samuel Rappylee Bateman, a former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to change her plea to guilty Wednesday afternoon.
Bateman married more than 20 wives between 2019 and his arrest in 2022 — at least ten of them were children at the time he married them, according to an FBI investigation. Nine of the child brides were taken into custody when he was arrested in Colorado City, Arizona, but his adult wives kidnapped them from Arizona Department of Child Services custody and fled to an Airbnb in Spokane, Washington, where federal troopers found them a few days later.
Barlow is one of eight wives and 10 followers indicted alongside Bateman for crimes ranging from kidnapping to engaging in sexual conduct with minors. She initially pleaded not guilty on Feb. 7 — along with four other of Bateman's wives — to 11 counts of kidnapping, transporting a minor for sexual activity, transferring obscene materials to minors and more.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Eileen Willett, who has overseen all of the change of plea hearings so far, said Wednesday that Barlow regularly watched, and often engaged with, Samuel Bateman as he had sex with his underage wives or forced them to watch him have sex with his adult wives. One girl was as young as nine when she was taken as a wife and was, according to court documents, forced to strip naked and watch Bateman have sex with Barlow and others over a video chat when she was only 10.
Though she entered an initial plea of not guilty to the third superseding indictment filed against Bateman and his 10 followers in January, Barlow changed her tune just weeks after her arraignment, following the example set by two other wives, Marona Johnson and Leia Bistline.
Donnae Barlow, who pleaded not guilty to four counts alongside her sister Brenda in February, is set to change her plea to guilty on Friday.
Like Marona Johnson, Brenda Barlow pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tampering with an official proceeding, in exchange for the rest of her charges being dropped. After Bateman was arrested in 2022, he sent messages to all of his followers, ordering them to delete their accounts on Signal, the messaging app they used to communicate, and get rid of any other evidence. Barlow hid Bateman’s tablet and the keys to his trailer in the mountains near their home in Colorado City.
While Barlow didn’t participate in the overt act of kidnapping, according to court documents, she was involved in coordinating the plan, and drove the babies some of the women had with Bateman to California to evade law enforcement, in accordance with Bateman’s wishes.
She will be sentenced on May 13 at 3 p.m. in Arizona federal court.
With Donnae Barlow set to take a plea deal this week, Bateman is left with six followers going with him to trial on Sept. 10.
Naomi Bistline, another wife of Bateman’s, is the only defendant of 11 who hasn’t yet been arraigned on the third superseding indictment. She pleaded not guilty to the second superseding indictment in May.
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