Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Elizabeth Smart abductor gets 15 years

|
|
 
  
WAX2003031902 - WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- Wanda Barzee, seen in this March 12 booking photo, was charged on March 18, 2003, in Salt Lake City, with kidnapping and sexually assaulting 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart. rlw/SLCPD UPI 
License photo
Published: May 22, 2010 at 4:27 PM

SALT LAKE CITY, May 22 (UPI) -- One of Elizabeth Smart's abductors received a 15-year prison sentence in Utah after apologizing to her family.

U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball gave Wanda Barzee seven years credit for time served and ordered her to spend the rest of the term at a medical and psychiatric center for female federal prisoners in Texas, CNN reported.

Barzee had pleaded guilty to helping her then-husband Brian David Mitchell kidnap Smart, then 14, from her Salt Lake City home in 2002.

"I know the gravity of my crimes and how serious they are," said Barzee, 64. "I'm just so sorry again for all the pain and suffering I caused upon the Smart family."

Smart's mother, Lois, told Barzee: "What you did to Elizabeth and our family was wrong and evil. You hurt our family in ways you'll never know…. I hope you will be able to make peace with your maker."

As part of a deal, Barzee agreed to testify against Mitchell, whose trial is to begin in November.

Mitchell, 56, is charged with abducting Smart at knife-point from her bed. She was held nine months before the couple's 2003 arrest.

Topics: Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth Smart, Wanda Barzee
Recommended Stories
© 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Father's Day: Celebrity dads The 2012 Miss USA competition Faces of the 2012 French Open
2012 MTV Movie Awards Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Notable deaths of 2012
Additional U.S. News Stories
1 of 20
Lil Niqo arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Rapper Lil Niqo arrives at the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California on June 3, 2012. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Some of the world's weirdest ice cream flavors. Come for the octopus and stay for the pink peppercorn...
Nearly half of Americans believe in Creationism, sex in the Champagne Room
Armed robbers break into video store and leave emptyhanded, proving once again that there just isn't...
Finally, a fantasy league for the entertainment tab that doesn't involve Christina Hendricks mudwrestling...
Google Earth is great for mapping out trips, finding a nearby Starbucks, and, oh yeah, disovering...
What proper name would you bestow upon the Fark squirrel?