Elizabeth Smart Takes the Stand Against Alleged Kidnapper

Elizabeth Smart took the stand today against the man accused of kidnapping and raping her, recounting in a calm voice how Brian David Mitchell allegedly woke her up on the morning of June 5, 2002, with a knife to her throat. He said, “Come with me or I will kill you and your family,” Smart said, adding, “I thought I was having a nightmare. It was indescribable fear.” After Mitchell and Smart met up with Mitchell’s wife Wanda Barzee, they performed a ceremony “sealing” Smart and Mitchell, CNN reports.

Though Smart begged to be released, “he said he knew exactly what he was doing and he understood the consequences of his actions,” she said. She also testified about the alleged rape, remembering that she told Mitchell she “was just a little girl—that I hadn't even started my period yet.” She tried to fight him off, “but a 14-year-old girl against a grown man doesn't even out so much,” she said. Her younger sister and mother also took the stand today. Click here for more on the case.
(More Wanda Barzee stories.)