Elizabeth Smart Storms Out of Utah Courtroom
Smart left after testimony that she chose a baby name in case she got pregnant.
Dec. 1, 2010— -- Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart stormed out of a Utah courtroom today after a psychiatrist testified that she had baby names picked out in case she became pregnant by the man who held her captive.
Psychiatrist Paul Whitehead told the court that Smart had been "chastised" by her accused kidnapper Brian David Mitchell and his accomplice, Wanda Barzee, according to The Associated Press.
"Mr. Mitchell was talking with Miss Smart about having babies to the point where Miss Smart actually picked out a name in case that happened," Whitehead testified.
As Whitehead described Smart choosing a baby name, Smart left her front row seat in the courtroom and went to a private area. Her mother quickly followed.
The federal trial of Mitchell has been roiled with controversy. On Tuesday, Mitchell was removed from the courtroom and the trial temporarily halted after the defendant appeared have suffered a seziure, collapsing in court. Mitchell returned to court again Wednesday but was removed for singing hymns and disrupting the proceedings.
Smart herself also spent three days on the stand last month, giving excruciating personal testimony that painted Mitchell as a brutally cruel, religious zealot obsessed with sex.
Speaking in a controlled voice, her words tinged with anger, Smart called Mitchell selfish and a "hypocrite" who raped her at every chance he got even while proclaiming himself to be God's servant.
The now 23-year-old woman told the jury that Mitchell talked to her during her nine months in captivity about what would happen if they were captured.
"He knew he would go to prison. But then he also said that I ... and the other wives ... would come and testify in his behalf," Smart testified. "And he said that he would be released and he would be killed and lie dead in the street for three days and then he would be resurrected and he would go on to fight the Anti-Christ."
She also spoke of being forced to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, which disgusted her.
Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her bed in Utah. She has said she was forced to "marry" Mitchell in an impromptu ceremony shortly after the kidnapping and that he would often beg her for sex, angering accomplice Wanda Barzee, who was jealous of the attention Mitchell gave Smart.
During her three days on the stand, Smart was poised and unruffled as she detailed her nightmarish nine months with Mitchell and Barzee. She said that at one point she was confronted by a police officer looking for Elizabeth Smart and he wanted to look under the veil Mitchell made her wear. She was so afraid of Mitchell's death threats that she didn't speak up and was heartsick that the officer wasn't more persistent.
That officer, Det. Ron Richey, has said he was devastated to learn later that he had been looking right at Smart and didn't do more to help her.
When she was finally rescued, she initially denied her identity out of fear that Mitchell would make good on his death threats.
Barzee pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges last year and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.
