Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed a list of witnesses they plan to call during Brian David Mitchell's upcoming competency hearing.
Four experts and 25 lay witnesses are on the list, including Mitchell's former neighbors and his mother-in-law, Dora Corbett. Absent from the list is Wanda Eileen Barzee, Mitchell's wife, who Tuesday pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to testify against him at trial.
Prosecutors contend that Mitchell -- a self-proclaimed prophet accused of abducting Elizabeth Smart -- is faking psychological symptoms to dodge responsibility for his crimes.
The lay witnesses will establish that Mitchell's mental health has "not significantly changed throughout his life" and that he is "not preoccupied with religion," prosecutors wrote in the witness document filed in U.S. District Court.
The experts include psychiatrist who claims Mitchell is malingering, and two religion experts who are expected to say that psychologists who found Mitchell mentally incompetent had "seriously misjudged" his religious thinking.
Elizabeth Smart herself testified on Oct. 1 about her abduction and nine months of captivity, saying Mitchell was obsessed with sex and that he "used religion to get what he wanted."
Mitchell, 56, is charged with abducting Smart in 2002 and taking her to California with the intent to have sex.
Barzee, 64, pleaded guilty this week in federal court to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. Her plea bargain calls for her to serve 15 years in prison and testify against Mitchell.
