Thread: Elizabeth Smart says she was raped daily

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/...l6YWJldGhzbWE-

SALT LAKE CITY – Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday she was raped repeatedly each day after she was abducted from her bedroom seven years ago and told she would be killed if she yelled or tried to escape. She described Brian David Mitchell, her alleged kidnapper, as "evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God."

Smart testified in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City as part of a competency proceeding for the man charged in her 2002 kidnapping.

Mitchell has twice been found incompetent for trial in state court. Mitchell and his estranged wife were found with Smart nine months after she disappeared from her Salt Lake City home.

A judge ruled earlier this week that testimony from Smart, now 21, is relevant to the mental competency of Mitchell, who was removed from the courtroom before Smart arrived and taken to a holding cell where he could listen to the proceedings.

Smart was poised and composed while testifying for just under two hours.

She was 14 when she was abducted from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint in the middle of the night. Shortly after her abduction, Smart said Mitchell took her to a mountain camp and performed a ceremony she said was intended to marry the two.

"After that, he proceeded to rape me," Smart said.

She said he held her captive with a cable attached to her leg that had a 10-foot reach. That line was attached to another cable strung between two trees.

Smart said Mitchell plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance.

"He said that he would kill anybody that would come into the camp, or kill me if I ever tried to escape or yell out," Smart testified.

Smart said Mitchell was motivated by sex and used religion to get what he wanted.

Mitchell's defense attorneys had sought to limit Smart's testimony to her experiences with Mitchell, without her opinions about his mental state.

The defense objected to the 39 so-called "lay witnesses" proposed by prosecutors, including Mitchell's family, friends or workers at Utah State Hospital, because they lacked the expertise to evaluate competency.

In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball rejected the argument as it relates to Smart, saying her testimony may help the court settle differences in the findings of experts who have evaluated Mitchell.

Experts have split opinions over Mitchell's competency and have relied on statements from others — including Smart — and past evaluations to prepare reports for the court. Kimball's ruling said Mitchell has been uncooperative with evaluators and refused to participate in diagnostic tests.

In the state court system, Mitchell was twice found incompetent to stand trial.

Smart was rescued nine months after her abduction when a motorist spotted her walking through a suburb with Mitchell and his estranged wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee.

Last year, Mitchell was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.

Once an itinerant street preacher, Mitchell is said to have wanted Smart as a polygamous wife and may have taken her to fulfill a religious prophecy he laid out in a 27-page manifesto drafted in April 2002.

Good Lord, how horrifying for her.

Bless her heart and soul. Glad she has stayed strong

If he's uncooperative, then just put him on trial, or hell lets just bypass that and put him to death, after he's been bubba's b!tch for a while..give him a taste of his own medicine.

Woman to be sentenced in Elizabeth Smart case
By Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press Writer 32 mins ago

SALT LAKE CITY – The woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping Elizabeth Smart faces sentencing in two courts Friday, eight years after the girl was snatched from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint and held captive for nine months.

Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, is set for back-to-back sentencing hearings in U.S. District Court and Utah's 3rd District Court.

Barzee could face a combined 30 years in state and federal prison for her role in the abduction of Smart, who was 14 when Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell, allegedly kidnapped her in June 2002.

Barzee's sentencing has been repeatedly delayed because she was twice deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Barzee was court-ordered to undergo treatment with anti-psychoctic medications, and last fall doctors at the Utah State Hospital said her competency had been restored. The finding prompted plea negotiation with state and federal prosecutors.

In November, Barzee pleaded guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for Smart's abduction.

Then in February, she pleaded guilty, but mentally ill, in state court to a second-degree felony conspiracy charge for the attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin, Olivia Wright, about six weeks after the Smart's abduction.

As part of her plea agreements, Barzee has agreed to testify in pending state and federal cases against Mitchell.

Mitchell, 56, is scheduled for a federal court trial beginning being Nov. 1. A state case has been stalled because Mitchell was also deemed incompetent for trial. A state judge declined to order forced medication in his case.

At a federal court hearing last year, Smart said she was taken from her home to a mountain campsite where she was forced into a polygamous marriage with Mitchell and endured repeated rapes and other abuse. She was held captive for nine months.

A one-time itinerant street preacher, Mitchell allegedly wanted Smart as a second wife so that he could fulfill a religious prophecy laid out in a 27-page manifesto he drafted in early 2002.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100521/...th_smart/print