SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- A court hearing for a man charged with kidnapping Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart to make her into a plural wife was postponed when he kept singing hymns.
U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba said he would reschedule the hearing for Brian David Mitchell with the defendant appearing via video link from elsewhere in the courthouse, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday.
Mitchell, who ignored requests from Alba and from his own attorney to be quiet during Monday's proceedings, sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" and "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." He was taken out of the courtroom and gagged but continued to make muffled sounds when he returned.
Mitchell, 54, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 62, who face both federal and state charges, were found mentally incompetent to stand trial for kidnapping Smart, then 14, in 2002. But federal prosecutors decided to proceed against Michell after a state judge ruled that he could not be forced to take medication.
After Monday's hearing, the U.S. attorney's office asked for a psychiatric examination.
