Tom Green, a convicted Utah polygamist, was convicted yesterday of raping his 13-year-old “wife,” Linda Kunz, in 1986. Green will be sentenced on August 16 and could face life in prison for a conviction of felony child-rape. Green was found guilty in 30 minutes by Fourth District Judge Donald Eyre during a non-jury trial that lasted about an hour. Prosecutors submitted Kunz’s 1973 birth certificate and the 1986 birth certificate of the couples’ first child, Melvin, who is now 15. “Basically, this case comes down to math,” Eyre told Fox News. “We know a normal human gestation takes nine months.” While Green admitted to having sexual intercourse with Kunz in 1986, Green’s defense attorneys claimed that Utah authorities had no jurisdiction in the case because the couple conceived their son while vacationing in Mexico.
Green, 54, is currently serving up to five years in prison after he was convicted last year of being married to five women at the same time – a practice he claims adheres to the original tenets of the Mormon Church. The state of Utah decided to prosecute Green after he took his five wives and 33 children on national television to promote the idea of polygamy. He was also charged with failing to pay back the state for child support that was given for 30 of his children. The five women and 29 of their children continue to live in a compound on the Utah-Nevada border where they support themselves by selling magazine subscriptions. More than 100,000 people currently practice polygamy in the United States, according to Tapestry Against Polygamy, an organization that works to help women out of polygamist situations.
