SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 7, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Wanda Eileen Barzee, one of Elizabeth Smart’s two kidnappers, is back in the Salt Lake County jail after completing a federal prison term in Texas. Later this week, she will be back behind prison bars at the Point of the Mountain.
In 2002, Brian David Mitchell, Barzee’s then-husband, snatched the then 14-year-old Smart out of her bed. The couple held the teen captive for nine months.
Barzee, now 70, pleaded guilty in 2009 to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in connection with Smart’s abduction. Barzee was sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in federal prison, but got credit as part of a plea bargain for the seven years she’d already spent behind bars in both the Utah State Hospital and Salt Lake County Jail.
Mitchell, 62, was convicted in 2010 of aggravated kidnapping and illegally transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes. He is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Arizona.
At the time Barzee was sentenced, she was also ordered to serve one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison for state kidnapping charges in the Smart case.
Late Thursday afternoon, Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill announced Barzee will be transported to the Utah State Prison on Friday to begin serving her state sentence. She is eligible for a parole hearing in the summer of 2018. According to the federal Bureau of Prison’s website, Barzee was released from the Texas prison on Tuesday, April 5.
Elizabeth Smart-Gilmour is now 28 years old, married, and a mother. She is an activist for child safety and a contributor to ABC News.
