Barzee ruled mentally incompetent for trial in Smart abduction

SALT LAKE CITY — One of the two people suspected of kidnapping teenager Elizabeth Smart 19 months ago from her Salt Lake City home is incompetent to stand trial, a judge ruled Friday.

Wanda Barzee, 58, was ordered to the Utah State Hospital by Judge Judith Atherton, who also said Barzee's competency will be reviewed at an April 15 hearing.

Two mental health experts had earlier found her not competent to stand trial, but a hearing was scheduled Friday to contest those rulings. Barzee earlier this week waived her right contest those findings.

Barzee and Mitchell are charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary in the June 5, 2002, abduction of Smart, then 14.

Barzee and Mitchell, a drifter and self-styled prophet, allegedly kept Smart as Mitchell's second wife for nine months in Utah and California. They were found March 12 in Sandy, about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. The couple also were charged in the attempted abduction of the girl's 18-year-old cousin, Jessica Wright — seven weeks after Smart, now 16, was taken.

At Friday's hearing, Barzee did not speak but nodded twice after being asked if statements made in her waiver request were hers. Shackled at the feet and wrists, she wore a brown jail jump suit and smiled while speaking with her attorneys after the judge's ruling. She did not speak to reporters.

Barzee's attorneys, David Finlayson and Scott Williams, filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to rule without an evidentiory hearing. But in the motion, Barzee did not agree with two mental health experts who found her incompetent.

"I do not believe myself to be mentally ill or infirm or incompetent in the eyes of the Lord," she said.

The experts were unable to "understand the special nature of my relationship with God and my role as a minister and servant unto Him. ... Their inability to understand is also a result of their different belief system, and the influence of Satan's subtle powers on them."

Mitchell's competency hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27-28.

Before Mitchell's hearing, the attorneys were to meet privately with the judge, who on Monday indicated she was likely to keep the hearing open unless defense attorneys were able to show there would be a "substantial risk" to the ability to provide Mitchell a fair trial.

Yocom said that because the two mental health evaluators assigned to Mitchell disagree on whether he is competent, attorneys would likely have to present evidence at the hearing.