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SALT LAKE CITY -- Former in-laws, a past religious leader, a woman who claims Brian David Mitchell wanted her to become his second wife and a worker at the State Hospital were among witnesses Tuesday in Mitchell's mental competency hearing in federal court. Mitchell is accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart in 2002.
He sang primary songs and well known LDS sacrament hymns in the courtroom before a judge dismissed him to another room.
Among those testifying was Evelyn Camp, one of the sisters of Wanda Barzee -- Barzee pleaded guilty last month in the kidnapping case. Camp told the court Mitchell seemed to her like a man who needed attention and who was jealous of Barzee. She also said he was very controlling.
At one time, while Mitchell and Barzee were living near the Camps, she said Barzee brought her a box of family photos and asked her to destroy them. Most of the photos were of family, but one in particular disturbed her. "It was of two little girls sitting on a chair in a kitchen," she told the court. She said they were naked and did not look happy.
When Camp confronted Barzee about the photo, she said Mitchell explained the photos were of his children and asked, "Who wouldn't take photos of their little girls naked?"
Several months before the kidnapping, at the funeral for Camp's step-father, Camp said Mitchell and Barzee showed up wearing robes. They also visited the house, telling Camp's husband, Dick, that Mitchell had written a book on his religious beliefs and mentioning the name of Emmanuel David Isaiah.
"He knew his name was Brian," Camp said. "And he's going, ‘So who is this Emmanuel David Isaiah?' And Brian looked up and said, ‘He stands before you.'"
Another woman told of her interaction with the Mitchells in 1997 and 1998 when they were living with an Orem family. Alysa Phillips Landry, for a time, was engaged to a man whose family believed the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had strayed since the time of President Ezra Taft Benson and Mitchell was the man who was going to set the church right.
She said the family believed in a practice called Lymphology -- what they perceived as the power Jesus Christ used to bring about his miracles in the New Testament. They also believed in living the "Law of Consecration" and the "Law of Polygamy."
Landry told the court women in the family were regarded as objects and they also believed it was OK for someone to "try-out" a woman before marriage. Landry said the Mitchells and the family parted ways after the family became concerned Mitchell was moving too quickly in regard to their beliefs.
Another woman who encountered Mitchell in 2001 told of his efforts to get her to marry him. Julia Adkison had met him while he was on the street and while she was working at a downtown store. Adkison had recently left the Kingston polygamist clan and was interested in religious issues. One day, she spoke with him while he was preaching on the street. She told the court Mitchell would begin singing hymns when people confronted him, but then would resume a normal conversation with her when they would leave. He told her the people were not ready for what he had to say.
Later, she said Mitchell tried to convince her that she was supposed to marry him, that the time was right for him to take on another wife. On cross examination, attorneys asked Adkison about who Mitchell thought he was in relationship to God. She said he believed he was Christ or "of Christ," and that's why he wore a robe.
Also testifying Tuesday morning was a former psychiatric nurse at the State Hospital in American Fork. Leslie Miles said in 2003, while she was working as the nurse-manager at the hospital, Mitchell appeared to be "selectively mute." She said he would refuse to talk with some people, especially male employees, but would be more open to talking with younger females on the staff. She told the court Mitchell often sang, but agreed to stop after she told him some of the other patients were becoming agitated and she was concerned for Mitchell's safety.
Miles told the court Mitchell would also begin singing when guards would come to take him to various hearings and would stop singing when they left.
She also testified that staff became concerned when Mitchell took interest in a patient who had extra privileges. She said the staff believed he was trying to use him to get access to things.
Outside the courtroom, Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, said he wasn't surprised by the testimony. He believes Mitchell has the idea he is above the law.
"Obviously, he is fairly charismatic and is able to ingratiate himself to others easily when he gets his way, when people are willing to go his route. Otherwise he stonewalls just like in court," Smart said.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys asked very few questions of the witnesses, except to clarify their expertise on judging whether or not a person is mentally ill.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
