Elizabeth Smart storms from court during testimony

Former kidnap victim leaves as psychiatrist explains her captor's bizarre ideas about procreation

Published December 1, 2010 6:15PM (EST)

Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart has stormed from a Utah courtroom as a psychiatrist testified that her alleged attacker had been motivated by a desire to have children and create a new race in an imaginary Zion.

Forensic psychiatrist Paul Whitehead took the witness stand Wednesday under subpoena during the federal trial of defendant Brian David Mitchell on kidnapping and other charges.

Whitehead said he gleaned this information from the journals of Wanda Eileen Barzee, Mitchell's estranged wife.

Whitehead said Mitchell chastised Smart for not wanting to have children.

At that point, Smart got up from her seat in the front row of the courtroom and left to a private area. Her mother followed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah State Hospital doctor says he believes the man charged with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart suffers from a major psychotic illness.

Forensic psychiatrist Paul Whitehead testified under subpoena Wednesday during the federal trial of defendant Brian David Mitchell on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for the purposes of illegal sex.

Whitehead supervised the hospital unit where Mitchell was housed between 2005 and 2008 and diagnosed him with a delusional disorder.

Whitehead says he believed Mitchell needed anti-psychotic medications, but added that Mitchell refused all treatments.

Mitchell was incarcerated at the state hospital after being deemed incompetent for trial in a parallel state case.

Federal prosecutors took over the case in 2008.


By Jennifer Dobner

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