Elizabeth Smart Testifies Against Captors/Brian David Mitchell Sentenced To Life In Prison

I also think they should put one of those trap balls in Mitchell's mouth and slap a dog muzzle on him. And then blindfold him before they bring him into court. He doesn't deserve to see Elizabeth's beauty. This has gone on way too many years.

Complete: Third day of Elizabeth Smart’s testimony

By Sheena MCfarland and Aaron Falk
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Nov 10, 2010 10:38AM
Updated 1 hour ago Updated Nov 10, 2010 10:46AM

Elizabeth Smart continued testifying about her kidnapping for a third day Wednesday.

Brian David Mitchell entered singing “Behold the Great Redeemer Die.”

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50647494-76/amet-comnietur-consed-deck.html.csp

Elizabeth Smart finishes Utah trial testimony

(AP) – 2 hours ago

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The man accused of abducting Elizabeth Smart was a crude, vulgar, self-serving person who used religion to justify his actions, including her kidnapping and rape, she told jurors on her third and final day of testimony.

"He was his number one priority, followed by sex, drugs and alcohol, but he used religion in all of those aspects to justify everything," Smart said in a clear voice.

She finished her testimony Wednesday morning after just 15 minutes of cross-examination by a defense lawyer for Brian David Mitchell, an itinerant street preacher accused of taking her from home knifepoint on June 5, 2002, when she was 14.

Read more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdExNECI_b3cUrAqWmmuWy7vHrew?docId=9184898e70204e9eb717692036214187

Elizabeth Smart Outwitted Captor To Win Freedom
For months, Elizabeth Smart says, she watched the man accused of kidnapping her use religion to manipulate others.

Posted: 10:15 AM Nov 10, 2010

Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- For months, Elizabeth Smart says, she watched the man accused of kidnapping her use religion to manipulate others.

Brian David Mitchell claimed his revelations were divine, Smart testified this week at his federal kidnapping trial. But she saw them as his way to get the two things he truly worshipped -- sex and alcohol.

So, when Mitchell started talking in March 2003 about moving on as food supplies ran low at the camp they'd set up about 30 miles from San Diego, California, Smart came up with a way to steer them back home to Utah.

She told him she had a revelation.

"I said I thought we should return to Salt Lake City," Smart recalled. "I said I didn't know for sure, but God told me we should pray on it. Everything I said was immediately disregarded, but I knew if I said God told me, he would listen to me a lot more."

Mitchell agreed to pray on it and she sweetened his prayers with this suggestion: The mountains of Utah are filled with girls' camps, with plenty of opportunities for him to "plunder" other young Mormon brides and fulfill his revelation that he was to take seven wives in seven years, and then multiply that number sevenfold.

Smart returns to the witness stand Wednesday for a third day of testimony at Mitchell's federal kidnapping trial. He is accused of abducting and transporting a minor across state lines for sex. If convicted, Mitchell could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Read more: http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/107039388.html

Smart: Happy end to a sad saga

By Lee Benson, Deseret News
Published: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010 10:54 p.m. MST

~Snipped~

What chills me to this day, though, is how precarious her rescue was; how convinced police and FBI agents leading the investigation were that Elizabeth would not be found in the clutches of the crazed purported religious fanatic.

A little-known detail that was not widely publicized then or now is that on Mar. 12, 2003 Ed Smart had been summoned to Sandy, 20 minutes from his home in the Salt Lake foothills, so yet another false lead in the kidnapping case could be dismissed.

The Salt Lake City police detectives who called Ed and ordered him to drive to Sandy did not expect he would soon be hugging his daughter. The detectives, who were on the scene and looking right at her, believed the homeless girl traveling with the bearded man and haggard woman — the three of them detained by Sandy police — would turn out to be nothing more than a homeless girl traveling with a bearded man and haggard woman.

The quickest way to positively prove that it wasn't Elizabeth was to have her father drive out and say so.

It was the reason Ed went alone and his wife, Lois, wasn't with him.

Fortunately, the Sandy police had not formed tunnel vision on the case — nor had the two couples who called 911 that morning after recognizing Mitchell from episodes of "America's Most Wanted."

The Salt Lake police, on the other hand, were long invested in their pet theory that former Smart handyman and ex-con Richard Ricci was the kidnapper — a secret they were sure Ricci had taken to his grave. He died of a brain aneurysm six months earlier after being held at the prison in maximum detention. Conventional wisdom was that his confession died with him.

~Snipped~

Ultimately, it was the Smart family going rogue — they held their own non-police-approved press conference — that brought Mitchell's identity to public view.

And it took an FBI agent acting on his own to get Mitchell's identity on television on "America's Most Wanted."

Finally, it took Sandy police not invested in a "theory" to ask Elizabeth the questions that got her to admit who she was and rescued from her captors — even before her father made it to Sandy.

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700081650/Smart-Happy-end-to-a-sad-saga.html

Could breaks in Mitchell trial hurt case?

November 14th, 2010 @ 10:49am
By Pat Reavy

SALT LAKE CITY -- The trial of Brian David Mitchell, accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, is expected to last more than a month.

Some of that time includes long breaks, including this four-day weekend jurors have off for Veterans Day, and a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday.

But does having that much time off present any problems for a jury, especially when some of that time is for a holiday that includes large family dinners for most people, many of whom may want to talk about the case or have questions about it?

"The judge will give very clear instructions about what they can and cannot do," said University of Utah law professor and former federal judge Paul Cassell, who is not directly involved in the case. "I'm sure Judge (Dale) Kimball has read them the riot act."

Before they break for Thanksgiving, Cassell said Kimball likely would stress to the jurors that they talk about "turkey and football and nothing else."

As for whether the jury should have been sequestered to avoid the possibility of jurors talking to others or watching or reading up on news coverage of the Mitchell trial, Cassell said it is always a difficult situation to "lock up" a jury for an extended period of time, especially over the holidays. The trial began Nov. 1 and is scheduled until Dec. 10.

Read more: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13275309

This sure is a long trial. I don't buy the insanity defense. Elizabeth's testimony made it clear to me that Mitchell is a master manipulator who knows the difference between right and wrong. He uses religion to justify his despicable behavior and manipulate people, and he sings his hymns in court as part of an act to try to convince everybody that he is insane. One of the articles stated that he quits singing and pays attention to the proceedings as soon as he is brought into a separate room to watch the trial on a monitor.

Unsung hero in Elizabeth Smart case

Tom Holbrook — was guided by inspiration
Author: Doug Robinson
Source: Deseret News
15 November 2010 11:15am

~Snipped~

Fate or providence or both put Holbrook in the middle of the kidnapping case. In the spring of 2002, he happened to be working at a Salt Lake mortuary during the funeral for Elizabeth Smart's grandfather. Aside from his full-time job, Holbrook occasionally works in his brother's mortuary business when the latter needs help. He met Ed and Lois Smart that day and remembers seeing both Elizabeth and Mary Katherine as they were preparing to play their harps in honor of their grandfather. Later, as Holbrook worked in the mortuary office, he could hear them playing their instruments.

A few days later — June 5, 2002 — Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped. Holbrook didn't make the connection until a week later when one of the TV reports mentioned that Elizabeth had attended a funeral shortly before her abduction. It was this connection that caused Holbrook to follow the story in the news in the coming months as the mystery of Elizabeth's disappearance dragged on.

Hopes for finding her seemed to be waning by February 2003. Holbrook was laid up at the time, recovering from surgery. He doesn't normally watch TV on Sunday unless it's to watch a family-friendly Hallmark special, and this happened to be one of the exceptions. During a commercial break, he saw a promo for the 10 o'clock news announcing that the Smart family would hold a press conference the next morning.

"I had a very strong impression that I needed to find out what that was about, although I have no idea why," he recalls. "It was unique for me to feel compelled to follow a press conference."

But the next day he felt so sick from the lingering effects of the surgery that he forgot about the press conference and stayed home from work. On Wednesday, he turned on his computer for the first time in days and again was overcome by a feeling that he needed to read about the press conference that had been held two days earlier. But then a family member called him away from the computer to do something, and he forgot about it.

By Friday he was able to return to work for the first time since the surgery. As he was getting ready to leave the office at the end of the day, he again remembered the press conference. He sat down at the computer and searched the Deseret News archives for coverage of the event. The article reported that Mary Katherine had suddenly remembered where she had heard the voice of the man who had threatened and kidnapped her sister. There was a sketch of the suspect, but it meant nothing to Holbrook. Then he continued to read the story. The suspect was described as a homeless man who called himself Emmanuel who the Smarts had hired to work on the roof of their house. He was a known panhandler.

"I knew who that was," says Holbrook. "The sketch confused me — it didn't look like him — but the description sounded like Brian."

He printed the story and took the bus home. The first thing he did when he entered his house was hand the printout to his wife, Lisa, who was in the kitchen. "You need to read this," he said. Strangely, one of his children asked, "Is that anything to do with Brian?" Holbrook was stunned by the comment, but said nothing. His wife read the story and then walked down the hallway to the couple's bedroom, with Holbrook following.

"Do you think this is Brian?" she asked when they were alone.

They discussed it the rest of the night. Could Lisa's brother have done this? What should they do? They didn't believe Mitchell was guilty, but they felt they needed to identify the mystery suspect for the Smarts and police so they could eliminate him as a suspect and find the real kidnapper. They could provide his real name.

The Holbrooks hadn't seen Mitchell in months, but that was not unusual. It was difficult to panhandle during Utah's winter months, so he often migrated to warmer climates and returned in the summer. The last time they had seen him was two months before the kidnapping when police served Mitchell with a restraining order forbidding him to be near his mother. As he left his mother's house with the police watching and his wife, Wanda Barzee, in tow, he screamed at Holbrook and his wife as they sat in a van on the curb. Minutes later the Holbrooks saw the couple board a south-bound bus.

The day after her husband presented the story of the press conference to her, Lisa called police. Initially, police couldn't find Mitchell in the system, but eventually they realized there was a discrepancy in the spelling of Emmanuel and Immanuel. Police records indicated Brian David Mitchell had been picked up for shoplifting. Holbrook expected police to call again to ask more questions, but it didn't happen.

The Smart family was increasingly frustrated with the direction the police were taking their investigation. They were largely uninterested in the Emmanuel lead and still believed the late Richard Ricci, an ex-con who looked nothing like Mitchell, was the kidnapper. Even after Mary Katherine's disclosure about Emmanuel, even after Lisa called, police continued to believe that Ricci was their prime suspect and did little to pursue Emmanuel.

Six days after Lisa's phone call, a policeman casually mentioned to Fennerty, the thinking-outside-the-box FBI agent, that they knew the identity of Emmanuel. Fennerty got the name, and after a discussion with Tom Smart he decided to ignore orders and go public with the name. He leaked Mitchell's name and photo to John Walsh of America's Most Wanted.

For his part, Holbrook still couldn't believe Mitchell was the kidnapper until Benson called him and they compared notes. The more they talked, the more both of them began to suspect that Mitchell was the culprit. Everything fit — the homelessness, the panhandling, the camp in the mountains above Salt Lake City, the handyman work he performed for hire, his self-annointed alias.

Read more: http://www.mormontimes.com/article/18432/Unsung-hero-in-Elizabeth-Smart-case-8212-Tom-Holbrook-8212-was-guided-by-inspiration

McEntee: Testimony casts doubt on Mitchell plea

By peg mcentee
Tribune Columnist
Published Nov 15, 2010 09:08PM
Updated 3 hours ago Updated Nov 15, 2010 11:30PM

The interview seemed doomed from the start. Brian David Mitchell, playing the “servant-of-the-Lord” card to explain how Elizabeth Smart came to be taken captive, while a Salt Lake City detective and an FBI agent were trying to provoke him into straight talk.

It was March 12, 2003, the day Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were taken into custody and Smart was freed from nine months of torment. The questioning was videotaped, and prosecutors had it played Monday during Mitchell’s federal trial.

As has become customary, he entered the court singing and was sent to another room. His attorneys are pursuing an insanity defense.

On the tape, Mitchell is asked how old Smart was. “She’s 18,” he says. (She was 15.)

“Why should I believe that?” Detective Cordin Parks asks.

“Because the Lord has said she is such,” Mitchell replies.

Parks asks if Mitchell had sexual intercourse with her, and Mitchell replies, “I am my own attorney. I’m defending myself, correct?”

Then he seems to catch himself, and returns to his script: He did not kidnap Smart at knifepoint, take her to a campsite in the mountains north of Salt Lake City, stage a “marriage” and rape her, as she has testified.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50681892-76/mitchell-dougherty-parks-smart.html.csp

Defense begins in Smart kidnapping trial

By Pamela Manson and Cimaron Neugebauer
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Nov 16, 2010 09:53AM

See past coverage of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial, including full transcripts of Smart’s testimony, at http://www.sltrib.com/topics/mitchell

The prosecution has rested its case against Brian David Mitchell, turning the trial over to the defense, which will try to prove Mitchell was insane in 2002 when he kidnapped Elizabeth Smart from her home at knifepoint and held her captive for nine months.

Defense attorneys on Tuesday requested a mistrial because the jury has heard unsubstantiated allegations Mitchell had sexually abused children even before Smart’s abduction.

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball denied the motion. The allegations came up in a video viewed Monday by jurors of an interrogation of Mitchell by an FBI agent and a Salt Lake City police detective after his arrest.

After entering the courtroom Tuesday, Mitchell sang Christmas carols, including “Joy to the World,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night.” He was removed to an adjoining room with an video feed of the proceedings after he declined to stop singing.

FBI Agent George Dougherty, who continued his testimony from Monday, said under cross-examination that he talked to Mitchell in four interviews for a total of six to eight hours. The agent said Mitchell would answer questions after carefully formulating an answer, and sometimes asked questions himself.

“It wasn’t necessarily a one-sided conversation,” Dougherty said.

He said Mitchell told him he was approached by law enforcement four times during the nine months Smart was missing and the encounters frightened him.

“I remember he said they relied on fate to get them through those rough times,” Dougherty said.

Mitchell told him they moved to San Diego to stay in a warmer place for winter.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50687031-76/mitchell-larsen-dougherty-smart.html.csp

Mitchell's father testifies in Elizabeth Smart case

November 17, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Brian David Mitchell’s father and a homeless advocate were among the witnesses called by defenders to testify in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping an rape case on Wednesday.

Mitchell was once again removed from the court for singing hymns before testimony resumed.

Mitchell’s father Shirl testified that his son’s problems began while he was in his mother’s womb, probably because he had been deer hunting when he was born.

Shirl Mitchell testified that Brian was often chastised for bad behavior as a child, which he believed led to his ‘alienation.’

Public defender Robert Steele questioned Shirl about the discipline that was used on Brian as a child.

“He was always teasing, creating turmoil in the family. Especially on his little sister. It got so chronic it may have been his contributor to his alienation,” said Mitchell.

Shirl Mitchell also testified of a time when Brian jumped out of a moving car to avoid punishment. At one time Shirl testified that he’d left Brian in a public park far away from the family’s home as a disciplinary action when he was 9 or 10 years old.

Read more: http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Mitchells-father-testifies-in-Elizabeth-Smart-case/LMN7ArNqP0Ks54bpLMM1bQ.cspx?rss=20

Elizabeth Smart Trial Update: Defense Asks Judge for Acquittal

November 17, 2010 2:59 PM

SALT LAKE CITY (CBS/AP) Defense attorneys for Brian David Mitchell, the man charged with kidnapping Elizabeth Smart in 2002 and holding her captive for nine months, filed a motion Tuesday asking the judge to acquit their client of all charges, claiming that the prosecution had failed to meet their burden of proof.

In particular, defense attorneys contend prosecutors failed to prove the count relating to unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for sexual activity. In court papers, Mitchell's attorneys said that sex was incidental to the trip made to California during Smart's nine months of captivity. Smart was 14 at the time of the abduction.

"To put it bluntly, Mr. Mitchell had no need of traveling outside of Utah for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with Ms. Smart," the defense wrote.

The judge did not immediately rule on the motion.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20023106-504083.html

Brother says Brian David Mitchell displayed signs of mental illness as a teen

Published: Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010 11:45 a.m. MST
By Pat Reavy, Deseret News

Editor's note: DeseretNews.com will provide updated reports from court testimony and line by line testimony of Wanda Barzee, who is expected to testify this afternoon. You can also follow us on Twitter @DNewsCrimeTeam.

SALT LAKE CITY — Another family member of Brian David Mitchell's took the stand Thursday to talk about the formative years of the man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart.

Tim Mitchell, Brian Mitchell's younger brother, took the witness stand first. A counselor at Bear River Mental Health, he testified that as a child, Brian had many projects going on, sometimes not to the approval of his parents.

"He was, um, a creative person. He always seemed to have some sort of funny or interesting project going on. He and I were probably close because he was my big brother and I looked up to him," Tim Mitchell said.

Among Brian Mitchell's projects as a child: he built model airplanes, model rockets, tried to build a roller coaster in his backyard and one day tried to build a parachute so he could jump off his neighbor's garage.

During one particularly interesting project, Mitchell tried to turn his backyard into a nudist resort by putting up sheets around his backyard.

"One day my sister came in and said, 'Brian is out there in the backyard sunbathing without any clothes on,' " Tim Mitchell recalled.

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700083173/Brother-says-Brian-David-Mitchell-displayed-signs-of-mental-illness-as-a-teen.html

Wife: Accused Smart kidnapper stalked young girls

November 19, 2010

~Snipped~

Barzee said Mitchell told her in fall 2001 they needed to find a girl to take because no one wanted to join the religious society he wanted to form.

"We were given the commandment to take young girls between 10 to 14 years old," said Barzee, who cried recounting the story. "He would go downtown and stalk young girls and find out where they live."

Barzee said she was devastated by the idea that a young girl would be taken by force but believed it was a commandment from God. She said an April 2002 revelation directed them to prepare for Mitchell to "go forth" to receive their first wife on June 4, 2002.

Smart was abducted June 5, 2002.

Mitchell is charged with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines. If convicted, the 57-year-old former street preacher could spend the rest of his life in prison.

On the night of the kidnapping, Barzee said Mitchell became consumed with "fear and doubt" about the mission.

"I told him that if the Lord didn't open the way, then he didn't have to do it," she said.

But on cross examination, Barzee conceded that she also pressed Mitchell to go through with the abduction because God had commanded it.

"So the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart is all your fault?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Felice John Viti asked.

"I don't know," replied Barzee, who also said that before the kidnapping she had no idea who the young girl would be.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/family/story/8655162/

Smart's Alleged Kidnapper: Grim Portrait of a 'Righteous Man'

By Jeanette Moses
Salt Lake City
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010



Brian David Mitchell's lawyer may be pushing an insanity defense in the self-proclaimed prophet's trial for kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, but there was no assistance from Mitchell's accomplice, his wife Wanda Barzee. "He's a great deceiver," she told the jury last week, after testifying that Mitchell was a manipulative and calculating man who used blessings and the word of God to intimidate those around him — beginning with herself.

Barzee is serving 15 years at the Carswell Center in Fort Worth, Texas, for her part in the Smart abduction. In November 2009, Barzee pleaded guilty to the charge after a Utah judge ordered her forcibly medicated with antipsychotic drugs to restore her mental competence. A long struggle over fitness for trial also delayed Mitchell's court proceedings, but he was declared competent in March 2010 and his trial began on Nov. 1. Barzee, testifying for the prosecution, painted a portrait of a dysfunctional relationship in which she was hectored and coerced into aiding Mitchell's quest for plural marriage and multiple wives.

They first met in 1985 at a group counseling session sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Salt Lake City. Barzee had just been through an abusive relationship and was attending the meeting on the recommendation of her bishop. She met Mitchell on her first day of counseling. She recalled that he held her hand to comfort her as she "poured her heart out." From then on, they held hands every day in counseling. The two dated for nine months and were married on Nov. 29, 1985, the same day Mitchell's divorce from his previous wife was finalized. "He was very supportive of me and my situation. [He had] been ordained an elder, had been through the temple, and received his endowments. I thought he was a righteous man," Barzee testified.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2032820,00.html

Mitchell shows a different side at state hospital

By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Nov 29, 2010 07:45PM

Brian David Mitchell was more bumbler than master manipulator while at the Utah State Hospital, one of his therapists testified Monday during Mitchell’s trial for kidnapping and sexually assaulting Elizabeth Smart.

“I think a lot of people think he is maybe three or four steps ahead,” Gregory Porter testified. “That was not the case. I did not view him as James Bond on the unit. I viewed him more as Inspector [Jacques] Clouseau.”

Porter mentioned with a laugh the time Mitchell invited Porter and another staff member to “bust him out” of the hospital and come with him to “live on the land.”

“Was he serious or joking?” asked defense attorney Robert Steele, who called Porter as a witness.

“In my estimation, he was serious,” Porter replied.

The testimony marks the beginning of what promises to be two weeks of mental health testimony going to the issue of whether Mitchell was insane in 2002 when he kidnapped a then 14-year-old Smart to take her as a plural wife. Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, were arrested with the girl in Sandy in March 2003.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50771080-76/mitchell-porter-hospital-court.html.csp

Mitchell’s seizure in court halts Smart kidnap case

By Sheena mcfarland, Stephen Hunt and cimaron neugebauer
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Nov 30, 2010 09:46AM

For past coverage of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial, including transcripts of testimony by Smart and Brian David Mitchell’s wife Wanda Barzee, visit http://www.sltrib.com/topics/mitchell.

Brian David Mitchell collapsed as Tuesday’s session of his federal kidnapping trial got under way.

Mitchell, who is usually escorted from court after he begins singing hymns, yelled out in a strangled voice about 8:50 a.m., ending up beneath the defense table. His attorneys then shouted for EMTs, saying he appeared to have suffered a seizure.

He was conscious and alert while being taken to University Hospital, but further updates on his condition were not available.

The jury had not yet been seated. They were told simply that an issue came up and asked to return on Wednesday.

Mitchell, 57, is on trial for the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. Defense attorneys have been trying to convince jurors that their client is legally insane.

Mitchell entered the courtroom singing "O Holy Night." Moments later, after U.S. Judge Dale Kimball was talking to prosecutors and defense lawyers about reading a statement to jurors that apparently would inform them about Mitchell’s 2005 mental competency proceedings in state court, Mitchell went into seizure.

As Kimball was explaining his decision, Mitchell stopped singing and dropped his head for a few moments. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis locked eyes with him and then he flailed back, making a loud bleating sound. He then fell to the left and his head came back.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50776875-76/mitchell-seizure-defense-lewis.html.csp

Smart storms from court during doctor's testimony

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press – 1 hr 8 mins ago

SALT LAKE CITY – Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart stormed from a Utah courtroom Wednesday as a psychiatrist testified that her alleged attacker had been motivated by a desire to have children and create a new race in an imaginary Zion.

Forensic psychiatrist Paul Whitehead took the witness stand under subpoena during the federal trial of former street preacher Brian David Mitchell on kidnapping and other charges.

Whitehead said he gleaned this information from the journals of Wanda Eileen Barzee, Mitchell's estranged wife.

Whitehead said Smart had been chastised by Mitchell and Barzee for not wanting to have children.

"Mr. Mitchell was talking with Miss Smart about having babies to the point where Miss Smart actually picked out a name in case that happened," Whitehead testified.

At that point, Smart got up from her seat in the front row of the courtroom and left to a private area. Her mother followed.

Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_re_us/us_elizabeth_smart

That is why most women (or men for that matter) do not wish to have to press charges and testify. My heart goes out to Elizabeth and her family. I cannot imagine having to have the courage and grace that she has shown.

I was talking to mr kh this evening and I told him that I really don't have hate in my heart. I hate the things people do, but I don't truly hate the person who did it.

This case, and others, have really tried me in that area.

I am starting to hate the monsters.

I am really hating them and I have to reconcile that with my religious/spiritual beliefs.

They are trying my beliefs me greatly.

kh

Testimony: Mitchell a longtime pedophile

By stephen hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Dec 4, 2010 01:16PM

~Snipped~

LouRee Gayler testified she was between 12 and 14 years old when Mitchell, her stepfather, would show her pictures of nude women while they prayed alongside her mother, Wanda Barzee.

“I’d open, and then close, my eyes,” said Gayler, who testified Mitchell would lay the pictures on the bed, then nudge her to make her look. “I felt it was wrong.”

And when Mitchell came to her room to say good night, Gayler said, “He’d caress me way too much. His hugs were too long. He’d brush up against my breasts.” At other times he would kiss her on the lips, despite her requests to stop, or thrust his pelvis at her.

Mitchell and Barzee took no pains to hide their sexual relations from Gayler, and Barzee often discussed her sex life with the girl.

“Religion was used as an excuse for their behavior,” Gayler said. “They could treat anybody anyway they wanted and repent so they didn’t have to answer to their wrong doings.”

Gayler, now in her 30s, also provided testimony supporting the prosecution claim that Mitchell is a master manipulator — not an insane religious zealot as his defense asserts.

~Snipped~

Soon after, her parents served Gayler her beloved pet rabbit, Peaches, for dinner, after telling her it was chicken. She found out she had eaten her pet when she couldn’t find Peaches the next morning.

“Wanda started laughing hysterically and said that I ate her for dinner,” Gayler said, adding that Mitchell was in a nearby room “watching with glee.”

The rabbit, Gayler testified, “was the only thing that loved me unconditionally.”

Gayler said she fled that home soon after her rabbit was killed and cooked.

“I found my father again, waited for [Mitchell and Barzee to go to work] and I left as fast as I could,” she said.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50803321-76/mitchell-gayler-friday-testified.html.csp?page=1

Mitchell or Barzee are both sick monsters who should never see the light of day again. Fifteen years was way too light of a sentence for Barzee, and they need to lock Mitchell up and throw away the key.

Brian David Mitchell has personality disorder, not mental illness, psychiatrist testifies

Published: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 10:17 p.m. MST
By Pat Reavy, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — A veteran forensic psychiatrist testified Tuesday that Brian David Mitchell suffers from a severe personality disorder — not a mental illness.

Dr. Noel Gardner, who is the director of South Valley Mental Health and has undergone hours of extensive, formal training in religion, spent the entire day on the witness stand Tuesday and was scheduled to return today for another hour to 90 minutes to finish cross-examination.

Much of Gardner's testimony was technical and often times complicated and sounded more like a classroom lecture as prosecutors went through several terms as defined by the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," such as delusional disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorder, anti-social disorder and malignant narcissism, as well as discussing the difference between a delusion and an over-valued idea, and how the brain functions.

The DSM IV is published by the American Psychiatric Association and considered the authoritative reference for mental illness.

Gardner has been involved in one form or another in studying Mitchell's case since shortly after the former street preacher's arrest in 2003. He believes Mitchell has a personality disorder, narcissism and anti-social disorder. None of those are classified as a mental illness.

When forming an opinion on Mitchell's condition, he said he looked at three general categories: whether Mitchell was delusional, devout or delinquent.

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700089180/Brian-David-Mitchell-has-personality-disorder-not-mental-illness-psychiatrist-testifies.html

Jury deliberating Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case

By stephen hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Dec 9, 2010 11:15PM

In the face of damning evidence that he kidnapped, raped and degraded Elizabeth Smart, Brian David Mitchell’s attorney had difficulty saying anything positive about the 57-year-old, self-proclaimed prophet.

“He is not a good person,” Robert Steele told a federal court jury Thursday during closing arguments at Mitchell’s trial.

Instead, Steele claimed that Mitchell was mentally ill and suffering from the delusion that he was commanded by God when he abducted then-14-year-old Smart at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002.

“I don’t think he has the free will to say, ‘God, I’m not going to do it.’ ” Steele said in asking the jury to find Mitchell not guilty by reason of insanity.

Twelve jurors began deliberating at 5:35 p.m. Thursday, but they went home for the night three hours later. They will resume deliberations Friday morning.

Mitchell is charged with interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity for allegedly holding Smart captive for nine months, including near-daily rapes and a trip to California and back.

During their closing arguments, prosecutors argued against the notion that Mitchell was insane when he committed the crimes.

U.S. District Attorney Diana Hagen told jurors that, according to trial testimony, Mitchell disobeyed revelations from God “all the time.”

“And if he can choose to disobey God, he can choose not to rip a child away from her family, keep her bound like an animal and rob her of her dignity, identity and her childhood,” she said.

Hagen also said Mitchell demonstrated again and again that he knew he had broken the law, most tellingly by forcing Smart to wear a veil and, later, a wig and sunglasses.

“He knew he had done something terribly wrong, something he had to conceal at all costs,” Hagen said.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50843095-76/mitchell-smart-jurors-david.html.csp?page=1

I don't believe for a minute this jury will come back with a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity! I'm anxious to see him hauled off to a prison cell, let him act crazy in his cell all alone for years and years to come.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlWlh4tB3ShSybIzRpQ2uGyyPZ8Q?docId=e83fbabc54dd4b938d9cc8337ffc6bdf

Thanks kh!

GUILTY!!!!!!!!

Federal jury finds Smart kidnapper guilty

Posted: December 10th, 2010 01:18 PM ET

Lena Jakobsson and Michael Christian
CNN

A federal jury has found a homeless street preacher guilty of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart in 2002 and transporting the 14-year-old girl across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity.

Jurors deliberated for about five hours before announcing the verdict in the case of Brian David Mitchell, 57, court officials said.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/10/federal-jury-finds-smart-kidnapper-guilty/

~Snipped~
Smart testified that she awoke to find a man holding a cold steel blade to her neck. She was taken from her bed and marched up a rugged mountain path in her red silk pajamas. When they reached Mitchell's remote camp, Smart testified she was "sealed" to her captor in a marriage ceremony, raped and shackled between two trees with a metal cable. She said she was degraded and treated "like an animal."

Smart said she was raped nearly every day during nine months in captivity and forced to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and watch Mitchell have sex with his legal wife, Wanda Barzee. She was forced to wear robes and a veil in public and was not permitted to speak to other people. She said she feared Mitchell would act on his threats to kill her and her family if she did.

"I felt that because of what he had done to me, I was marked," Smart testified. "I wasn't the same. My personal value had dropped. I was nothing. Another person could never love me," she added. "I felt like I had a burden the size of a mountain to carry around with me the rest of my life."

I've never seen a young person with such class and dignity. I hope she has the world by the tail from here on out, no doubt in my mind she'll succeed at whatever she wants to accomplish in her life.

Snipped from another article..

Mitchell was convicted of interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity for holding Smart captive for nine months, including near-daily rapes and a trip to California and back. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 25, which allows time for a presentencing report to be completed.

Mitchell was present in the courtroom while the verdict was read, singing the LDS hymn “He Died. The Great Redeemer Died.”

Singing again as the verdict was read

Hopefully, it will be life in prison. But May 25th?


http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50849318-75/mitchell-smart-jurors-verdict.html.csp

This is great news. I'm glad Mitchell was finally tried and found guilty after all these years.