The Elizabeth Smart Case

[dawnmpeters]

SALT LAKE CITY -- It was a moment six years in the making. Elizabeth Smart took the stand at U.S. District Court Thursday during a competency hearing for her accused kidnapper Brian David Mitchell.

For two hours, the 21-year-old recounted the details from the nine months she was held in captivity.

She testified Brian David Mitchell came into her bedroom on the night of June 5, 2002, held a knife to her throat and told her to get up quietly, or he'd kill her and her family.

She said he told her to get her shoes on. When she reached for slip-on shoes, he told her to get some tennis shoes.

She asked him why he was taking her. She said he told her he was taking her hostage and keeping her for ransom. She then said that was a lie.

Smart said Mitchell took her to a camp in the mountains, about three miles from her home, where she met Mitchell's wife Wanda Barzee. Smart said Mitchell took her into a tent and performed a marriage ceremony. She said after the ceremony, Mitchell raped her.

She testified that Mitchell raped her on a daily basis, three to four times a day. She also told the court he chained her to a tree to keep her from leaving.

She said, "There was no actual 24-hour period where he wasn't able to rape me."

She said for the nine months that she was held captive, the dominant focus for Mitchell was sex. She said he gave her alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance. He also made her watch pornography. He said it was to humble her.

She recalled a time when she vomited from too much alcohol, and Mitchell forced her to lie face down in it, saying it would show her "true state".

She said, "Anything I showed resistance or hesitance to, he would turn to me and say, 'The Lord has commanded you to do this. You have to experience the lowest form of humanity to experience the highest.'"

She said he used religion to get whatever he wanted. He would use methods like singing if he couldn't get what he wanted to fool people.

Smart said they moved to San Diego when it began to get cold in Utah, and because Mitchell wanted to find another wife. She said it was in California that Mitchell met a family while he pretended to be an LDS investigator, someone who wanted to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Smart said Mitchell saw a picture of the family's teenage daughter when he was invited to their home for dinner. She said Mitchell wanted to kidnap the girl, but his plans failed.

She described Mitchell as "smart, articulate, evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God."

She remained calm and composed throughout her testimony.

Brian David Mitchell was not in the courtroom while she testified because as soon as he was brought inside the courtroom, he started singing. He was taken to a room where he had an audio/video feed of the events happening the courtroom

read more here:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=8129503

[skeptik]

Man. God apparently fucks with all kinds of people's heads. I am glad he leaves me the fuck alone.

[groovy135]

http://celebchitchat.today.com/files/2009/02/20080826_smart2_350x263.jpg

I really admire Elizabeth and her family, I don't know many that could survive that ordeal. I can only hope that her and the family have relative peace and happiness for the rest of their lives. What a wonderful role model she is!

Elizabeth Smart's Advice to Jaycee Dugard: Move Forward in Life

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20301153,00.html?xid=rss-fullcontentcnn

[Pete Bondurant]

She is fucking beautiful.

[AngelFire]

Everytime I see this beautiful girl on tv, I am always amazed how she made it back home.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i48.tinypic.com/1zzkf8w.jpg
More than seven years after Elizabeth Smart was taken from her Salt Lake City home, Wanda Eileen Barzee pleaded guilty in federal court and agreed to serve 15 years in prison.

Barzee also agreed to plead guilty in state court and to testify against her husband, Brian David Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who allegedly wanted Smart as a plural wife. Barzee admitted in court Tuesday to helping Mitchell plan the abduction and encouraging it.

Barzee offered an apology to Smart, who was not in the courtroom, saying, "I am greatly humbled as I realize how much Elizabeth Smart has been victimized and the role I played in it. I'm so sorry, Elizabeth, for all the pain and suffering I caused you and your family. It is my hope you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me."

When U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball asked if the Smart family agreed with the terms, Ed Smart stood in the gallery and said: "We feel that under the circumstances we agree to them."

"I just hope that Wanda realizes what she did," he added. "It was absolutely wrong. It was absolutely horrible. As a mother, I am overwhelmed she was ever able to do something like that."

Outside the courthouse, Smart indicated both he and his daughter forgive Barzee.

Barzee pleaded guilty to a count of kidnapping and a count of unlawful transportation of a minor. If convicted in a trial, Barzee could have received life in prison for the kidnapping charge.
[...]

Barzee -- who claimed she is the "mother of Zion" and received messages from God through her television, according to testimony at earlier court hearings -- [B]recently completed a forced regimen of psychotropic drugs. Doctors at Utah State Hospital asserted this fall that she was competent to stand trial.
[...]
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13807276

[koochie]

im really surprised she never got pregnant...

[moonlilly1981]

one down one to go

[Valasca]

recently completed a forced regimen of psychotropic drugs.

Um, COMPLETED?
Yeah, she should NEVER "complete" that regimen.

[Hellsbells]

Elizabeth Smart kidnapper pleads guilty to trying to abduct cousin


(CNN) -- A woman convicted in the 2002 kidnapping of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart pleaded guilty in the attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin a month later, court officials said Monday.

In exchange for Wanda Barzee's plea of guilty but mentally ill to one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, prosecutors dropped state charges against her in Smart's abduction, said Nancy Volmer, spokeswoman for Utah state courts.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/08/elizabeth.smart.plea/index.html?hpt=T2

[Rockin Ma]

Is this new news? I didn't know that her cousin was almost abducted.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

After years of legal wrangling over her mental state, Wanda Eileen Barzee was ordered Friday to spend 15 years behind bars for helping her husband kidnap Elizabeth Smart and hold her captive for nine months.

She was sentenced first in federal court, and then a short time later in state court.

Under a federal plea bargain, the 64-year-old Barzee will receive credit for the seven years she already spent either at the Utah State Hospital or in jail. She pleaded guilty in federal court to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in November, soon after doctors said they believe she is mentally competent.

"I would just like to say again how sorry I am. I know the gravity of my crimes and how severe they are," Barzee said in federal court. "I'm just so sorry again for all the pain and suffering I caused on the Smart family."

Smart's mother, Lois Smart, spoke next.

Turning toward Barzee, she said: "Wanda Barzee, what you did to our family and to our girl Elizabeth was wrong. It was wrong and it was evil."

Lois Smart said outside court that she hadn't been planning to speak.
[...]

Barzee will be on five years of supervised release after her release from prison and have to register as a sex offender. She was given credit for time served since March 12, 2003, leaving eight years on her sentence with a possible year off for good behavior.

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball strongly recommended that Barzee be placed in Federal Medical Center Carswell, a prison facility in Fort Worth, Texas, that provides specialized medical and mental health services to female offenders.

Elizabeth Smart is serving a mission in Paris for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was not present for the sentencings.

Barzee was next sentenced by Judge Judith Atherton in the state's 3rd District Court, where she pleaded guilty and mentally ill on Feb. 3 to second-degree felony aggravated kidnapping. That plea stemmed from a plot to kidnap Smart's cousin in July 2002.

She was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison, concurrent to her federal term, and again apologized for her crimes.

This time, Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, said, "Our biggest concern above anything else is that Ms. Barzee not have the opportunity to hurt anyone else."

Barzee, who has agreed to testify against Brian David Mitchell as part of her plea deals, will serve her federal sentence first. Barzee can earn up to 52 days a year off her federal sentence for good behavior, meaning she could complete the term in seven years.

She will not get credit on her state sentence for the time already spent in custody, and the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has the authority to make her serve the remaining seven or eight years of the term after she gets out of federal prison.

However, defense attorney Scott C. Williams said Barzee likely will not be sent to state prison and instead will be let out of custody on her federal supervised release.

Williams said Barzee is remorseful for her actions and wants to be "spiritually realigned with her LDS faith." Both state and federal prosecutors said 15 years is an appropriate term.
[...]

Barzee -- who claimed she is the "mother of Zion" and received messages from God through her television, according to testimony at earlier court hearings -- initially had been found mentally incompetent to stand trial by Atherton. But after she underwent a forced regimen of psychotropic drugs, doctors at the State Hospital asserted she was competent and Atherton agreed in a March ruling.
[...]

Mitchell, 56, is charged in federal court with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor and in state court with kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault. His trial in U.S. District Court starts Nov. 1; the state proceedings against him are on hold.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_15134931

[Valasca]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/21/utah.elizabeth.smart.kidnapper/index.html?hpt=T3
Barzee says she's SORRY.
OK, sure, just that word will make up for the kidnapping and rape that Barzee was an accomplice to.
AND... she only has, what? 8 years left with good behavior? I hope they keep forcing the psychotropic drugs.
I'm sorry, Elizabeth, that our legal system failed you.

[Whisper]

Elizabeth Smart Trial to Begin 8 Years After Kidnapping
SALT LAKE CITY -- Eight years after he's accused of slicing through a kitchen window screen with a knife and whisking away a young girl in the middle of the night, the man charged in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart is headed to trial in federal court.
Jury selection in the trial of Brian David Mitchell is scheduled to begin Monday in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court.
After years of delays driven by questions about Mitchell's mental health and a jump from state to federal court, the trial of the one-time itinerant street preacher should finally bring Smart's saga to a close. Hers is a tale of loss, a family's fears and an improbable recovery that has long riveted the nation.
[...]
Mitchell, 57, was indicted in March 2008 on federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines -- for allegedly taking Smart to San Diego. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in a federal prison.
A 2003 state case -- in which Mitchell was charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault -- stalled after Mitchell was diagnosed with a delusional disorder and deemed incompetent to stand trial. A state judge rejected a request to force Mitchell to be treated with medications, saying she didn't believe the drugs would work.
The ruling left Mitchell incarcerated in the state hospital -- where he had refused treatment -- before federal prosecutors stepped in to take a run at the case.
Mitchell was judged competent to stand trial in federal court earlier this year after an expert witness for the government said he believed Mitchell was "malingering," essentially faking a mental illness to avoid prosecution.
[...]
Just picking a jury could take several weeks. Defense attorneys have argued that publicity of the case has tainted the pool of more than 200 jurors called for consideration, but efforts to move the trial out of Utah were rejected by both the U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Mitchell's federal public defenders maintain that he is ill and unable to participate in his own defense. In court papers, defense attorneys have said they'll mount an insanity defense, claiming Mitchell was so impaired at the time of the alleged crime that he can't be held legally responsible.
As evidence the defense is expected to rely on testimony from mental health experts who have evaluated Mitchell and will likely point to a 27-page manifesto drafted by Mitchell -- "The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah" -- as evidence of his delusions.
The rambling tome drafted a few months before Smart's June 5, 2002, kidnapping lays out Mitchell's own brand of religion that mixes revelations from early Mormon theology with excerpts from the King James version of the Bible and the writings of several New Age philosophers. The manifesto, an addendum to which has been written since Mitchell was arrested in March 2003, proclaims Mitchell a prophet and predicts his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, will take "seven times, seven sisters," an apparent endorsement of polygamy.
In Smart's first public testimony during a competency hearing last year, Smart said after being led from home in her pajamas and tennis shoes to a mountainside campsite she was forced to become Mitchell's second wife in a quickie religious ceremony and raped. During her captivity, Smart said Mitchell read frequently from his manifesto, sang hymns and laced his daily conversations with religious language.

"He told me he was a prophet," said Smart, who was given a religious name and was forced to wear a long, white robe, head scarf and two veils across her face. "He said he was the voice of God on Earth and that he would reign over God's children until Jesus came."
Smart said she believed Mitchell's religious devotions were a ruse. Religious revelations came conveniently when he wanted something or when he was trying to calm Barzee, Smart said.
Smart was 14 when she was abducted in the middle of the night. The disappearance transfixed the country as thousands of Utahns turned out to comb Salt Lake City and the surrounding mountains to search for her.
She was rescued nine months later after motorists spotted her walking the streets of a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell and Barzee.
Now, 22, Smart is expected to return to Utah from France where she is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to testify against Mitchell.

Not on the prosecution's list of 22 possible witnesses is Mitchell's now-estranged wife, Barzee, who also was charged in both state and federal court with crimes related to the kidnapping.
ike Mitchell, Barzee was twice deemed incompetent for trial in state proceedings. Ordered to undergo forced treatment with anti-psychotic medications, Barzee's competency was restored last year.

She pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor charges in federal court last year and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. State authorities dropped Barzee's pending case related to Smart's kidnapping in favor of her guilty plea in a companion case involving the attempted abduction of one of Smart's cousins.http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/31/elizabeth-smart-trial-begin-years-kidnapping/
http://i52.tinypic.com/2evpy84.jpg
ELIZABETH SMART

Shes beautiful

[TwiztidAngel]

Elizabeth Smart described how Mitchell came into her bedroom. She had left a kitchen window open because her mother had burned potatoes for dinner.

"I remember him saying that I have a knife to your neck, don't make a sound, get out of bed and come with me or I will kill you and your family," she said.

Smart said she got up and he grabbed her arm, and took her into a closet. He stopped her when she reached for slippers and told her to wear tennis shoes.

After leaving the house, Smart said, they hiked three to five hours up a dry streambed and over a mountain to a campsite. As they made their way, the man shed the stocking he used to cover his face. And she remembered him as the carpenter.

"The name Immanuel just came to me," Smart said.

At the campsite, Mitchell's now-estranged wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, embraced Smart, took her into a tent, sat her down on a bucket and washed her feet.

Barzee also told her to take off her pajamas and underwear and put on a robe or "she would have the defendant come in and rip them off," she said.

Smart said Mitchell entered the tent wearing a similar robe and married them by twisting lines from a Mormon religious rites into a marriage ceremony, known a sealing.

"He said, 'What I seal on this earth will be sealed to me in the hereafter and I take you to be my wife,'" she said, adding that she screamed and he threatened to put duct tape across her mouth.

"He proceeded to fight me to the ground and force the robes up," Smart said quietly, pausing, "where he raped me."

"I begged him not to. I did everything I could to stop him. I pleaded with him not to touch me, but it didn't work."

Mitchell shackled her ankle to a heavy metal cable, which was attached to a cable strung between two trees, making it impossible for her to flee, she said. She was tethered for about six weeks, despite promising Mitchell that she would not run away.

Lois Smart said she was awakened by daughter Mary Katherine, who was 9 at the time and slept with Elizabeth. With the baby blanket wrapped around her head, she looked like "a scared rabbit," her mother said.

"She said a man has taken Elizabeth with a gun and that we won't find her. He took her either for ransom or hostage," Lois Smart recalled Mary Katherine, now 18, saying.

Lois Smart said she went to the kitchen and immediately noticed the window was open and the screen was cut in a U-shape.

"My heart sank," she said. Then, she yelled to her husband, Ed: "Call 911. She's gone.'"

The morning after the kidnapping, Smart said she cried and Mitchell explained to her that he had been planning the abduction since first meeting the family. "He said that I was very lucky, that I had been called by God to be his wife," she said.

more at link> http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/family/story/8594029/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/-dd-348.jpg http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/-dd-1718.jpg
A tiny smile appeared on Elizabeth Smart’s face Friday morning as Brian David Mitchell was pronounced guilty of kidnapping her when she was 14.

The smile grew as a U.S. District Court clerk announced jurors had also convicted Mitchell of transporting her across state lines for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.

Moments later, as Mitchell was led singing from the courtroom for one final time during the five-week trial, the 23-year-old Smart was nearly beaming as she stood with her parents, Ed and Lois Smart.

Elizabeth Smart later triumphantly told a small army of reporters assembled outside the federal courthouse: “I am so thrilled with the verdict. But not only that, I am so thrilled to stand before the people of America today and give hope to other victims who have not spoken out about what’s happened to them.”

Thanking the public for their prayers and support, Smart added she hoped her experience shows that “it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened, and that we can speak out and we will be heard.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50849318-75/mitchell-smart-trial-verdict.html.csp

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/-dd-anderson8.jpg http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/-dd-2186.jpg
Smart then and after the verdict.

[carolinablue]

She is a lovely young woman in every sense of the word. She is beautiful in her strength and resolve, but there is a shadow in her eyes...just look at them separate from her face. See if you see it too, or if I'm just imagining it.

[62julietandvoid]

I am so thrilled no one bought that sicko's scheme. Every time I head about him singing to play crazy, or playing the religious card really pissed me off.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

She is a lovely young woman in every sense of the word. She is beautiful in her strength and resolve, but there is a shadow in her eyes...just look at them separate from her face. See if you see it too, or if I'm just imagining it.
I think it's just the picture. I chose it for the smile. I've seen many of her over the past 8 years and think it is wonderful that she has such a spark.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS3dbgkgxVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp1Rrw5U3Vc

[62julietandvoid]

(CNN) -- Elizabeth Smart, said her father, had "been through hell."

Waking up with a knife at her throat. Whisked away and tied up, then raped day after day. Threatened with death and having her family killed, if she dared speak up or escape. Then, eight years later, recounting all the horrors over three days in a Utah courtroom, in front of a jury and her abductor.


And now, after the federal jury in Utah convicted Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth Smart wants to get back to court -- this time, by becoming a prosecutor to give voice to other victims seeking justice. "It's subject to change," Ed Smart told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell on Friday, about his daughter's plans to become a lawyer. "But usually when she gets a thought in her mind, she sticks to it."

More at the link http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/10/utah.smart.family/index.html

[FlamingFox]

In case you missed last night's 'Elizabeth Smart: The Way Back Home', you can now watch the full episode online below:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40723041#40723041

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/168bf183b2abe8bc9188aacc163dd507/20120219-12.jpg
Elizabeth Smart married her fiance Saturday at a Mormon temple in Hawaii, several months ahead of scheduled plans for the nuptials after news of her engagement last month drew widespread media attention.

A family spokesman said the Utah woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months married Matthew Gilmour on Oahu's North Shore.

"Elizabeth's desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends," family spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement. "She decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant distraction was to change her wedding plans and to get married in an unscheduled ceremony outside of Utah."

The 24-year-old Smart is a senior at Brigham Young University. She met Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris.

The couple wed at the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of family members, Thomas said. The group then celebrated at a private reception and luau.

Smart and Gilmour got engaged last month and initially made plans to wed this summer.

"The bride and groom were beaming as they left the LDS Temple," he added, noting the couple planned to go on an extended honeymoon in an undisclosed location.
[...]

Since her rescue, Smart has become increasingly involved in advocacy work for crime victims, forming the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, aimed largely at protecting children from abuse through prevention and education.

"Her wedding further demonstrates it is possible to rise above challenging circumstances to lead a happy and productive life," Thomas said. "Once Elizabeth returns from her honeymoon, she looks forward to continuing her child advocacy work."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/elizabeth-smart-marries-hawaii-temple-15745836#.T0Fn5_XYSSM

[princessgrandma]

Her being found safe was a happy ending for her story, but this is just icing on the cake, the ultimate in happy endings. I wish the newlyweds a long and happy life together. They deserve it.

[Whisper]

Her being found safe was a happy ending for her story, but this is just icing on the cake, the ultimate in happy endings. I wish the newlyweds a long and happy life together. They deserve it.


Yeah I am really happy for her too
I remember the day she was found my mom called me screaming in the phone"They found Elizabeth"
Like it was her daughter lol

[MotherManderkin]

I am the exact same age as her, so I remember it from the standpoint of a teen when this happened. We lived on the other side of the country, but parents everywhere were terrified, especially parents of teen girls.

Very happy for her. She deserves all the best.