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SALT LAKE CITY -- After an extended four-day weekend because of Veteran's Day, the trial of Brian David Mitchell, accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, will resume Monday in federal court.
The prosecution is expected to rest its case sometime this week. Last week, the trial was highlighted by three days of emotional testimony from Smart herself who recounted in often times disturbing detail the abuse she incurred from Mitchell over the nine months she was kidnapped beginning in 2002 when she was 14.
She also testified about how Mitchell used religion to manipulate people, how his main concerns were sex and alcohol, and how he was a calculating person who knew full well that what he was doing was against the law and who did all he could to prevent Smart from being discovered.
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The trial of Brian David Mitchell, accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, is expected to last more than a month. Some of that time includes long breaks, including this four-day weekend jurors have off for Veterans Day, and a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday.The week ended with testimony from a former Salt Lake police officer who was called to the old Salt Lake Library in the fall of 2002 on a call of a possible Smart sighting. He encountered three people wearing robes, including an older woman and a younger woman wearing veils, whom Mitchell claimed were not allowed to remove their veils for strict religious reasons.
The officer left after a convincing Mitchell fooled him into believing there was no reason to suspect the young girl was Smart. It was only after Smart was found that the officer learned that the girl in front of him that day was her.
"I think the first week has gone spectacularly well for the prosecution," observed University of Utah law professor and former federal judge Paul Cassell, who is not directly involved in the case. "They were able to put on a compelling case on the facts and I think on the ultimate legal issues. Elizabeth Smart testified to some awareness of right and wrong by Brian Mitchell."
Cassell described Smart's testimony as a "home run."
"She showed a manipulative, aggressive and sexually motivated Brian Mitchell rather than someone who didn't understand the wrongfulness of what he was doing," he said.
Among the people still left on the prosecution's list of potential witnesses are Troy Rasmussen, the Sandy police officer who discovered Smart, and FBI Special Agent George Dougherty, who conducted a video-taped interview with Mitchell shortly after his arrest.
The video, which was partially shown during Mitchell's federal competency hearing in 2009, shows Mitchell remaining calm and collected, and even taking control of the situation while FBI agents attempted to interview him.
"He was very calculated about how he answered the questions, like he was on a witness stand," Dougherty testified in 2009.
Once the prosecution rests, the defense is expected to begin working on their client's insanity defense, which would likely include testimony from expert witnesses, such as psychiatrists who have testified in the past about Mitchell.
"The big thing is going to be the battle of the experts," Cassell said, noting it may prove to be the longest part of the case.
The trial was expected to run until Dec. 10.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com
