{"id":108502,"date":"2026-04-15T21:58:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/where-are-nomz-and-christine-now-is-samuel-bateman-in-prison-trust-me-the-false-prophet-documentary-update\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T21:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:58:45","slug":"where-are-nomz-and-christine-now-is-samuel-bateman-in-prison-trust-me-the-false-prophet-documentary-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/where-are-nomz-and-christine-now-is-samuel-bateman-in-prison-trust-me-the-false-prophet-documentary-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Are Nomz and Christine Now? Is Samuel Bateman in Prison? Trust Me: The False Prophet Documentary Update"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Trust Me: The False Prophet<\/i><\/a> follows cult psychology expert Christine Marie and her videographer husband Tolga Katas, who moved to Short Creek, Utah, to document and support a community in crisis. In 2011, Warren Jeffs \u2014 leader of the breakaway Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), whose members practice polygamy \u2014 was convicted of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison. His imprisonment left the insular community fractured and adrift. As Christine and Tolga got to know their new neighbors, a familiar face resurfaced: Samuel Bateman, a former rank-and-file FLDS member who now proclaimed himself a prophet and began to amass followers and take multiple wives, including minors.<\/p>\n

Directed by Emmy- and Peabody Award\u2013winning filmmaker Rachel Dretzin (Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey<\/i><\/a>), the four-part documentary is built largely from footage Christine and Tolga captured while embedded in Bateman\u2019s inner circle. Believing they were making a documentary that would spread and uplift his message throughout the world, Bateman welcomed the cameras \u2014 unaware they were secretly gathering evidence of his crimes, including the sexual abuse of underage girls.<\/p>\n

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The docuseries culminates in a dramatic FBI raid on Bateman\u2019s compound, his arrest, and later a brazen kidnapping plot he orchestrates from jail.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Several of his male followers are now serving lengthy sentences. Some of his adult wives no longer associate with him; others still remain loyal. All of Bateman\u2019s underage victims testified against him in court.<\/p>\n

To unpack the documentary\u2019s aftermath, where its subjects are today, and what comes next, Dretzin sat down with Tudum \u2014 alongside Christine Marie and Naomi \u201cNomz\u201d Bistline, a survivor of Bateman\u2019s sect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Where are Nomz, Moretta, and Julia now?<\/h3>\n

At its peak, Bateman\u2019s group included at least 20 wives, nearly half of whom were minors as young as 9. Christine first heard rumors that Bateman was married to children, but confirming what she\u2019d heard proved difficult. \u201cI was not permitted to be alone with the underage girls,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As seen in the series, it wasn\u2019t until a November 2021 car ride that Christine captured something concrete on audio: Bateman admitting to crimes with underage girls, with his victims in the backseat confirming his account as he coached their responses in real time. While even this wasn\u2019t the smoking gun that would bring Bateman down, the moment illustrated the depth of the psychological control the women and girls would have to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cGroupthink is so powerful,\u201d Christine says. \u201cIt\u2019s like superglue. You can\u2019t just wake up when you\u2019re getting your thoughts reinforced by other people you respect and love.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even after Bateman\u2019s eventual arrest more than a year later, the dynamic persisted: the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, or DCS, placed all of his underage wives in the same group home. \u201cThe power dynamics continued because you had the stronger girls making the younger girls terrified of speaking to law enforcement,\u201d Christine says.<\/p>\n

The situation escalated in November 2022 when Bateman, from prison, orchestrated a kidnapping plot in which eight minors vanished from state custody. After they were recovered in Spokane, Washington by police, they were placed in separate foster homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the minors have come out [against Bateman], and the reason for that is very simple: They were all removed from the community and from their other sister wives and put into foster care,\u201d Dretzin says. \u201cOnce they had the perspective of being outside the group, they were able to see what had happened to them and speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the picture is more complicated for the adults. \u201cThe vast majority of the adults featured in this film are still followers of Sam Bateman to this day,\u201d the director says. \u201cAll of the minors [in the documentary] have finally separated from Sam and \u2018woken up,\u2019 as we call it, but in many cases, their parents have not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three women, however, broke free. Their stories reveal what it took to escape Bateman\u2019s grip.<\/p>\n

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Julia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julia Johnson\u2019s involvement in the investigation was pivotal, and came at enormous personal risk. She was the wife of Moroni Johnson, an early Bateman follower who urged her to give four of their daughters, two of whom were underage, to Bateman as wives. In July 2022, she began secretly meeting with Christine, sharing firsthand accounts of his crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia did not give her children away,\u201d Christine says. \u201cJulia fought it and didn\u2019t know what to do about it. She was crying, having mental breakdowns over it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julia\u2019s decision to break from Bateman meant confronting her husband directly. In the documentary, she recalls telling him, \u201cWe\u2019re following a false prophet, and he\u2019s leading us right to hell, and I\u2019m not going to go there anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia is extraordinary,\u201d Dretzin says. \u201cIn many ways [she\u2019s] the heroine of the film, because it takes so much for a woman at that age to turn against her husband and to risk what she risked in going for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia and Moroni are no longer together. Moroni pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit trafficking of a minor for sexual purposes and, in May 2025, began serving a 25-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Christine and Julia remain in touch. \u201cI have nothing but praise to heap upon her,\u201d Christine says. \u201cI am so proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Moretta and Nomz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moretta Johnson and Naomi \u201cNomz\u201d Bistline were two of Bateman\u2019s most devoted wives. Moretta, one of Julia Johnson\u2019s daughters, was a minor when Bateman took her as a wife. Nomz, who is interviewed in the series, had been brought into the sect by her guardian, LaDell Jay Bistline, after 10 years in his care. Both were vocal defenders of Bateman before ultimately becoming the only two of his adult wives to testify against him in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing compelling about him,\u201d Nomz tells Tudum. \u201cEvery one of us really hated him at first. And then he would break us down and make us into what he wanted. It was a lot of abuse and coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christine offers context for the fierce loyalty they displayed while under Bateman\u2019s control. \u201cIf you are in a relationship with your abuser, you\u2019re safer by doing whatever they want \u2026 by convincing yourself that you\u2019re buying into it when, deep in your heart, you\u2019re really not,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I watched the documentary and I saw them, I could see the trauma bonds and I knew that that was not who they really were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moretta and Nomz were arrested for their roles in the kidnapping plot and sentenced to prison time. For both, the separation proved transformative.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoretta had spent a year in prison,\u201d Julia says of her daughter in the documentary. \u201cHer words are, \u2018Prison set me free.\u2019 It helped her get into a thought process of her own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nomz describes her time similarly. \u201cPrison was the best and worst thing that happened to me,\u201d she says. \u201cIt forced me to start thinking for myself. It forced me to start questioning things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since being released from prison, Moretta has fully left the community, married, and started a family. \u201cShe and Nomz are very close,\u201d Dretzin says. \u201cThey really support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nomz has also dissociated from the FLDS community, and, after devoting so many years to the needs of others, is now finding joy in nurturing her own passions. \u201cThere\u2019s so much that I didn\u2019t even know I had a knack for,\u201d she says. \u201cI still draw a lot.\u201d She\u2019s dabbled in modeling as well, but music has become her focus. She\u2019s been working with a vocal coach and meeting with producers and songwriters. \u201cMusic helps me process things,\u201d she says. \u201cIt helps me let it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dretzin describes Nomz\u2019s transformation as \u201cbreathtaking.\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s the only one of the young women who\u2019s come forward publicly, and it took an immense amount of courage,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nomz\u2019s reconciliation with Christine \u2014 whom she had likened to the Biblical Judas after a DCS document leak revealed she was an FBI informant \u2014 came unexpectedly, when she listened to a podcast in which Christine shares her own story of surviving abuse at the hands of a false prophet. \u201cThat was when it all clicked,\u201d Nomz says. \u201cThe parallels of our stories were so similar. \u2026 Since then, we\u2019ve been really close friends. She\u2019s a godmother to me, and Tolga\u2019s a godfather. They\u2019re the best people in my life sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

To hear more from Nomz, read her exclusive in-depth interview linked below.<\/p>\n

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