By Sheena McFarland and Cimaron Neugebauer

| The Salt Lake Tribune

For past coverage of the trial, including transcripts of testimony from Elizabeth Smart and Wanda Barzee, visit www.sltrib.com/topics/mitchell.

Noel Gardner, an adult psychiatrist who runs the South Valley Mental Health, is the only witness scheduled by the prosecution to testify Tuesday in the Brian David Mitchell case.

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Gardner — a psychiatrist with an extensive religious background in the Seventh Day Adventist religion — spent 30 minutes detailing his education and career background.

After Judge Judith Atherton of the state’s 3rd District Court ordered Gardner to evaluate Mitchell in 2003, Gardner diagnosed him with a narcissistic personality disorder and said he was competent.

On Tuesday, Gardner began by discussing the differences between personality disorders and severe mental illness. He said those who suffer from personality disorders, which are not deemed a mental illness, are capable of understanding their world and its consequences.

He said that a tiny fraction, about three in 10,000, have a delusional disorder, which is what psychiatrist witnesses for the prosecution have diagnosed Mitchell with.

Prosecutor Diana Hagen asked Gardner whether he thought Mitchell had a severe mental illness.

"He does not meet that criteria," Gardner said.

Gardner said in 2003, he viewed all the documents related to Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, including the Book of Immanuel David Isaiah and Barzee’s journal. He said he also was able to view video of the interrogation Mitchell had with investigators in Sandy in 2003. After reviewing these materials, Gardner said he was given an opportunity to interview Mitchell, but it didn’t go as he had planned.

"I attempted to interview the defendant," Gardner said.

He said Mitchell was brought into the room in shackles, whereafter Gardner said he "attempted to engage him," but realized after 15 to 20 minutes that it wasn’t going anywhere.

"He immediately sat down and deeply stared into my eyes and said not a word ... it was an incredibly intimidating stare," Gardner said, adding that there was "absolutely no response, [just] intense deep staring into my eyes."

Gardner said he attempted to write down everything Mitchell was wearing and everything he was doing if he wasn’t going to talk. For a short portion of time, Gardner said he tried to stare back at Mitchell, but that quickly ended.

"It was clear I was no match for this guy," Gardner said.

While the staring match was uncomfortable for the doctor, he said what he discovered was "diagnostically useful," because it helped him understand what Mitchell wasn’t. He wasn’t schizophrenic, he said.

"It is completely outside the experience with a schizophrenic," Gardner said of Mitchell’s consistent, intimidating staring.

From 2003 to the present time, Gardner said he has read every bit of material related to the case that authorities have in their possession, including law enforcement documents from San Diego, Sandy, interviews with family members, mental health evaluations done in the 1970s and even many of the religious books Mitchell read and referred to in his book.

In diagnosing Mitchell, Gardner relied on the "Three D’s" — whether Mitchell had delusional, devout or delinquent ideas. Gardner said he had to decipher if Mitchell was just being a devout religious extremist, or if he had a personality disorder, or if neither of those applied.

Hagen asked Gardner if the two diagnoses given earlier in testimony by other psychiatrists were at all related.