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Elizabeth Smart's Abductor Sentenced

MINOR JUSTICE

Barzee gets 15 years, will testify against husband.

In a small victory for Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in March 2002, one of her abductors was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison. Wanda Barzee admitted to helping her husband, self-proclaimed prophet Brian Mitchell, hold Smart captive for nine months, during which Smart was chained up and repeatedly raped. In court, Barzee agreed to testify against her husband, while asking for Smart's forgiveness. Smart, who was 14 at the time of her kidnapping, was not present at the sentencing. Barzee, who has spent time in a mental hospital, and Mitchell were both determined to be mentally competent to face charges, though Mitchell's attorney's claim that he is not.

Read it at Los Angeles Times