Competency review ahead for Barzee

A competency review has been scheduled for accused Elizabeth Smart kidnapper Wanda Barzee.

The review hearing, scheduled for Oct. 23, will mark Barzee's first appearance in a courtroom in well over a year and her first review since doctors at the Utah State Hospital began treating her with anti-psychotic medication.

Barzee, 63, was declared incompetent to stand trial in 2004. After a long series of court hearings, including the first ever "Sell hearing" in Utah to determine whether Barzee met the criteria set by the U.S. Supreme Court for involuntary medication, a court order to begin administering anti-psychotic medication was signed in May 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Barzee's petition.

Barzee and her estranged husband, Brian David Mitchell, are charged in 3rd District Court with kidnapping and sexually assaulting Smart in 2002. The trio was found walking along State Street in Sandy nine months after Smart had disappeared from her Salt Lake home.

Mitchell, who was also found to be incompetent to stand trial, was ruled to not meet the criteria for involuntary medication. After that decision was made, prosecutors moved to have Mitchell transferred into the federal court system so his case there could take priority. The transfer did not mean his charges in state court were dismissed.

Mitchell is scheduled to have his first competency hearing in federal court in November.

— Pat Reavy