Elizabeth Smart's Accused Kidnapper Defiant, Evasive in FBI Interviews

As a pair of seasoned FBI agents got increasingly irritated and angry, Brian David Mitchell appeared completely at ease. He slouched in his chair in the interrogation room, responding rapid-fire to their questions without answering any of them.

"Did you take her out of her house?" one agent asked Mitchell, who slouched in his chair.

"The Lord God delivered her unto us," he replied.

"This isn't making sense to us," the other FBI agent said.

"The truth will set you free. It will set all men free," Mitchell said.

Round and round the interview went, with the man who insisted that the federal agents call him "Emmanuel David Isaiah" answering, but not answering their questions about "Shearjashub Esther Isaiah" -- the name he gave to Elizabeth Smart. "Shearjashub," Mitchell said in the FBI tape, means "the remnant will return."

The FBI interviews were played in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City as part of the mental competency hearing for Mitchell, who is charged with kidnapping Elizabeth Smart from her home back in 2002. She was found in the company of Mitchell, a homeless street preacher, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, nine months later walking down a Sandy street.

Federal prosecutors are attempting to prove that Mitchell is competent to face trial. Defense attorneys insist he is not and is delusional.

On the witness stand on Monday, Dr. Michael Welner reviewed the tapes and said Mitchell was in complete control of the interview. At one point an exasperated FBI agent said to Mitchell: "You're talking in circles, man!"

"With two experienced interrogators, he's taken over," Welner said on the witness stand.

At times, the questioning became too much for Elizabeth Smart's mother, Lois, who would walk out of the courtroom. Ed Smart called the videotaped interviews "unbelievable" and said he did not believe that Mitchell had much of a defense, claiming that it shows Mitchell was well aware of what he was doing when his daughter was abducted. Mitchell engaged the agents in conversation, acknowledging at times that he would be perceived as a criminal and a pedophile. He said he had "great compassion and love" for Elizabeth Smart's family. Yet he refused to answer questions about abducting Smart.

"The Lord God Almighty delivered her to us," Mitchell said.

"Tell me the truth! How did Elizabeth wind up with you?" an FBI agent shouted at him.

"By the power of God, she was delivered to us," he calmly replied.

"Brian, this isn't working," the FBI agent said.

"Emmanuel," he corrected them.

Mitchell is facing federal charges accusing him of snatching Smart, then 14, from her bedroom at knifepoint back in 2002 to make her a polygamous wife. Interviews with Wanda Barzee were also played in court where she described how Mitchell ordered her to help in the kidnapping and sexual assault of Smart.

"Brian told me when we obtained her what we were to do," Barzee told Welner in the videotaped interview.

Barzee claimed on the tape that she didn't want to participate in the sexual assault but "at the same time I was told I was the mother of Zion."

Barzee recently struck a plea deal that could get her a 15-year prison term when she is sentenced in May. The terms of her plea deal also call for her to testify against her husband in any future trials, federal prosecutors have said.

The mental competency hearing for Mitchell has been slated to last 10 days, ending this week. U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball will then issue a ruling on whether Mitchell is competent to face trial.

Elizabeth Smart has testified in the hearing. She offered her testimony about Mitchell's mental state in October. Now 21, she is currently serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.