SOUTH DAKOTA – The men who spotted fugitive Lyle Jeffs say he didn’t try extremely hard to hide his identity after they saw him in their pawn shop.
River City Treasures and Pawn Owner Kevin Haug says Jeffs went into his shop and tried to sell two Leatherman tools. However, Haug says his employee had an uneasy feeling about Jeffs. “He asked for [Jeffs] ID and he willingly handed over his actual ID,” Haug says.
States will vary on how they list someone’s name on different kinds of documentation, so, the employee asked Jeffs what his name was. Haug says the wanted FLDS Church leader used an alias that was simply a mixture of his real names… Jeffs Lyle Steed. Haug adds, “That was Lyle’s master plan to avoid capture… to tell him ‘my first name is my last name,’ I guess.”
The next step is for Jeffs to be brought back to Utah to face prosecution for fraud and money laundering. John Huber is the US Attorney for Utah, and he feels optimistic Jeffs could be transferred back to the Beehive State within the next seven days. “There is likely another felony charge that will come because the conduct over the last year with him fleeing prosecution,” he says, but they have several steps to go through before they can determine what the specific charge will be.
Plus, he’s certain Jeffs won’t be given home confinement, again. Huber warned the judge against allowing it before. He says, “We have those times when you don’t want to say, ‘I told you so,’ but, that’s kind of where we’re at.”