Lawyer: Woman Will Enter Guilty Plea In Smart Case

JENNIFER DOBNER

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Seven years after it began, the wrenching saga of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping is expected to move toward resolution Tuesday with an expected guilty plea from one of the two defendants charged in the case.

Wanda Eileen Barzee is scheduled to appear in Utah's U.S. District Court on Tuesday to enter the plea on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor, her attorney Scott Williams said Monday.

Barzee, 63, could face a life sentence for the kidnapping charge and up to 15 years on the other count. Williams would not say whether a reduced sentence was part of a deal cut with federal prosecutors in exchange for a the plea.

Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for Utah's U.S. attorney's office, declined to comment on the agreement.

Smart was 14 in 2002 when she was abducted from her bedroom at knifepoint and whisked away to a campsite in the mountains above her Salt Lake City home. She was recovered nine months later after a motorist saw her walking on a suburban street with Barzee and Barzee's now-estranged husband, Brian David Mitchell.