Seven years after Elizabeth Smart was found on a Sandy street, having been missing since being taken from her Federal Heights home nine months before, a federal judge on Friday scheduled a Nov. 1 trial date for Brian David Mitchell in her abduction.
The trial is expected to take at least two weeks.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball also set dates for the filing of pretrial motions in the case, which captured international attention. The judge ruled on March 1 that the self-proclaimed prophet is mentally competent to stand trial.
Mitchell, 56, who is charged with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor, allegedly wanted to make the then-14-year-old Smart his plural wife.
Mitchell's defense team said they intend to raise an insanity defense, as well as plan to file for a change of venue. A judge would choose the venue within the states covered by the 10th Circuit: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.
"The notion is if a community is invested in a case it needs to be moved somewhere else," defense attorney Robert Steele said.
The court will send perhaps up to 500 jury questionnaires through the mail and pare down the potential jury pool based on those responses. Then 75 to 100 people could be brought in for individual questioning, attorneys said.
Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, were arrested on March 12, 2003, while walking in Sandy with Smart and charged in the state's 3rd District Court with the 2002 kidnapping and other crimes.
After hearings, Judge Judith Atherton ruled that the two were mentally incompetent to stand trial. Atherton also ruled Mitchell could not be forcibly medicated to try to restore his mental competency but that Barzee could be, a process that began at the Utah State Hospital in May 2008.
The state case against Mitchell and Barzee stalled over the competency issue, leading the U.S. Attorney's Office to begin a case against the couple and a federal grand jury issued an indictment in 2008.
Doctors at the State Hospital said last fall they believe Barzee is now mentally competent. She pleaded guilty on Nov. 17 to the federal charges and agreed to testify against Mitchell in exchange for a 15-year prison term.
On Feb. 8, Barzee pleaded guilty and mentally ill to a state charge of conspiracy to kidnap Smart's cousin, a plea that could affect whether she spends her sentence in a hospital or a prison. A sentencing hearing in 3rd District Court on that charge is set for May 21.
