Child sex trial of polygamist Warren Jeffs set to continue (VIDEO)

Polygamist church leader Warren Jeffs — accused of raping a 12-year-old girl and impregnating 15-year-old he'd taken as "spiritual wives" — is to continue his own defense after using his opening statements Wednesday to quote scripture at length, without once mentioning the charges against him.

On Wednesday, Texas prosecutors rested their case after playing an audio tape in which they allege the 55-year-old leader the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has sex with a 12-year-old girl in the presence of three other "wives," telling her to feel "the spirit of God."

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CNN reports that one juror wiped her eyes listening to the recording, while another looked at Jeffs out of the corner of her eye, and yet another had a hand covering her mouth.

At one point, the man asked her how she feels, and a girl replies in a small voice, "I feel fine, thank you." At another point, the man appears to address the others who are present.

The recording ends with the man saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

A young voice repeats, "Amen."

According to Radar Online

Jeffs is then heard asking the child: "How do you feel, doesn't it feel good?"

The 55-year-old continues to coach the girl throughout the ordeal, advising her to "just don't think about the pain."

Authorities seized the tape from the car Jeffs was traveling in when he was arrested in 2006.

Jeffs is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of bigamy stemming from a 2008 raid on a ranch near Eldorado, Texas, operated by his church. He is accused of forcing two teenage girls into "spiritual marriage," and fathering a child with one of them when she was 15, ABC reports. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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Jeffs' congregation, a radical sect of Mormonism, believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, and his followers see Jeffs as God's spokesman.

Before they played the tape, prosecutors showed the jury a photo of Jeffs and the girl and a marriage certificate which listed the girl's age as 12 at the time. The girl had reportedly grown up on Jeffs' Yearning for Zion ranch, clearing cactus and attending a school at which Jeffs was principal.

In his opening statement Wednesday, Jeffs asked jurors to remember his religious freedoms, the AP reports. As he spoke at length on the topic, Judge Barbara Walther interrupted Jeffs and said he clearly wasn't prepared to enter a defense.

Meanwhile, Jeffs kept a single witness — a member of his own church, JD Roundy — on the stand for hours, and was repeatedly cautioned by prosecutors and the judge over the relevance of his address and his long pauses.

He asked his witness to read verses from the Book of Mormon and the Bible, which he had entered into evidence.

More testimony from Roundy is expected Thursday.

According to ABC:

When the prosecution questioned the relevance of the testimony, Judge Walther told Jeffs: "I guess the court doesn't understand your defense. How is that relevant to the charges you face?"

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