Wanda Barzee sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, gets scolding from Elizabeth Smart's mother

SALT LAKE CITY — Lois Smart stood in the courtroom just a few feet away from Wanda Barzee and delivered a sharp scolding from one mother to another.

"Mothers don't do that to mothers," Smart told the woman accused of kidnapping her daughter Elizabeth Smart. "Mothers don't do that to children."

Almost eight years after Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in Federal Heights, held hostage for nine months and sexually assaulted, Barzee was sentenced Friday to both state and federal prison.

Barzee was sentenced Friday to 15 years in federal prison for her role in the kidnapping and sexual assault of Elizabeth Smart and one to 15 years at the Utah State Prison for the attempted kidnapping of Smart's then 15-year-old cousin. The sentences were to run concurrently.

Barzee will receive credit in federal prison for the seven years she has been in custody, but she will not receive credit for time served in her state sentence.

Before U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball issued his sentence, he allowed Lois Smart to address Barzee directly.

"What you did to our family and our girl Elizabeth was wrong. It was wrong, and it was evil," Lois Smart said in a calm but very direct manner while staring at Barzee. "You hurt our family in ways you'll never know."

Elizabeth Smart's father, Ed, addressed the court prior to Barzee's sentencing in 3rd District Court. His comments were brief and almost soft-spoken, as he chose simply to speak to Judge Judith Atherton rather than Barzee directly. He said his family went through "nine months of hell." His biggest concern, he said, was that Barzee not have the opportunity to harm anyone else.

Before Lois Smart spoke in federal court, Barzee, wearing jeans, a blouse, an unzipped blue hoodie and white tennis shoes with shackles around her hands and feet, offered an apology for the "pain and suffering I have caused the Smart family."

"I know the gravity of my crimes and the severity they've been," she said to Lois and Ed Smart.

Elizabeth Smart is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and was not present at Friday's hearing.

Lois Smart said she believed Barzee's comments were "probably sincere."

Dora Corbett, Barzee's mother, attended the hearing. She appeared to fight back tears as her daughter received her sentence.

"I don't have anything to say," Corbett said outside the federal courthouse. "We knew it was coming, and I'm just glad it's going to be a closure."