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Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping Trial: Suspect's Competency Hearing

By Joel Zand on October 01, 2009 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A federal court hearing began today focusing on the competency of Brian David Mitchell, the suspect charged with abducting and sexually assaulting Elizabeth Smart from her Salt Lake City, Utah home in 2002.  Smart was 14-years-old at the time.

Although Utah prosecutors charged Mitchell and his wife Wanda Eileen Barzee 2003 (see below) with felonies that included kidnapping, sexual assault, and burglary, state courts ruled he was incompetent to stand trial.

In 2008, federal prosecutors indicted Mitchell and Barzee on interstate kidnapping charges and taking Smart from Utah to California to have sex (below) during her nine months in captivity.

Today's hearing in federal court will focus on the accused kidnapping suspect Bryan David Mitchell's mental competency to stand trial.

Last week U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball denied attempts by Mitchell's defense attorneys to exclude Elizabeth Smart testify about her opinion concerning Mitchell's competency during her nine (9) months in Mitchell and Barzee's captivity.

You can read that decision here:

 

 

Here is the federal indictment of Bryan David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee for Elizabeth Smart's 2002 interstate kidnapping and transport from Utah to California to have sex:

 

 Here is FindLaw's link to Utah's original criminal charges in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping and assault case:

 

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