1 min read

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The man charged in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart has been returned to Utah after a federal competency evaluation, an official confirmed Friday.

Brian David Mitchell, 55, was back in jail Thursday after evaluation at a federal health facility in Springfield, Mo., where he was sent in December, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

The results of the evaluation were not released. Findings will be the subject of a status hearing in Mitchell’s case to be held soon, Rydalch said. No date has been set.

A telephone message for Mitchell’s federal public defender, Steve Killpack, was not immediately returned Friday.

Smart was 14 when she was taken from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002. She was found nine months later. Mitchell has been in custody since his arrest in 2003, when he was charged with multiple kidnapping and sexual assault charges in Smart’s abduction.

A federal grand jury also indicted Mitchell on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in March.

Mitchell, who suffers from a rare delusional disorder, has twice been found incompetent to stand trial in state court. That case stalled in October after a state judge said she would not order forced medications for Mitchell.

Federal prosecutors took over after that.

Comments are no longer available on this story