Street preacher indicted in Smart kidnapping case

SALT LAKE CITY - A judge unsealed an indictment Wednesday against a homeless street preacher accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, a day after the self-proclaimed prophet was ruled competent to stand trial.

The grand jury indictment of Brian David Mitchell, returned last September but kept under wraps, includes kidnapping and sexual assault charges against him and his wife, Wanda Barzee.

The indictment will move the case toward trial without a public preliminary hearing that might have required sensitive testimony from Elizabeth. Mitchell was expected to be arraigned Thursday, when a trial date could be set.

The 50-year-old Mitchell and Barzee, 58, are both charged with kidnapping Elizabeth, then 14, from her bedroom at knifepoint in 2002. The girl was allegedly taken into the foothills near her home for nine months, sexually assaulted and kept as Mitchell's second wife.

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