Elizabeth Smart Storms Out of Trial

Loses cool after shrink testifies Mitchell intended to impregnate her
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 2, 2010 6:23 AM CST
Elizabeth Smart Storms Out of Trial
Brian David Mitchell is taken out of Federal Court in a stretcher after collapsing in court during his federal kidnapping trial in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010.   (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Francisco Kjolseth)

Losing her cool for the first time, Elizabeth Smart stormed out of her alleged kidnapper's trial yesterday, glaring at a state psychologist as he testified that Brian David Mitchell intended to impregnate her and that the two had talked about baby names. Paul Whitehead, who evaluated Mitchell for three years, told the court that Mitchell has a "major psychiatric illness," but that he "was not seeing" a manipulative side of Mitchell. Whitehead was called as a witness as part of the defense's effort to prove Mitchell's mental illness means he's not criminally responsible for his actions, Reuters reports.

"He believes he is some sort of messenger between God and mankind," Whitehead testified. Smart later returned to court, accompanied by her mother, Lois. Mitchell himself was back in court yesterday after having suffered an apparent seizure the day before—but only briefly, before being booted for singing Christmas carols.
(More Elizabeth Smart trial stories.)

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