SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A psychiatrist says Brian Mitchell, accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart from her home in Salt Lake City, is faking mental illness to avoid trial.
The psychiatrist, Michael Welner of New York City, may testify at a competency hearing next month, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Prosecutors referred to his 206-page report in a motion to allow his testimony, which the defense wants to bar.
In his report, Welner said Mitchell has antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders and is a pedophile. But he said Mitchell's bizarre courtroom behavior is not genuine.
For example, Mitchell apparently began singing during courtroom appearances only after negotiations for a plea bargain failed in 2004.
Mitchell allegedly abducted Smart, then 14, from her bedroom in 2002 and raped her repeatedly at a campsite where he lived with his wife, Wanda Barzee. He and Barzee were arrested in 2003 in Sandy as they walked with the girl.
