Editor's note: While Deseret News reporters and editors have filtered much of the graphic detail from Tuesday's testimony, some readers may still find some of the following content objectionable.
SALT LAKE CITY — Separated at last from the man who had held her captive, continuously raped her and threatened to kill her for the past nine months, Elizabeth Smart still did not have the courage to tell the police officers that had just handcuffed her and put her into the back of a patrol car who she really was.
"I was very scared. I knew the threats that I had been told for nine months. I knew what they were and I was scared. I didn't know why I was being handcuffed. I thought maybe I had done something wrong, that I was guilty. And at the same time I thought, 'This is it, this is it. I'm done. This is it. Like, this is over,' " Smart testified Tuesday.
Smart took the witness stand for a second day and continued to describe for the jury her time in captivity at the hands of Brian David Mitchell with frank, and frequently disturbing details.
Speaking in a softer voice than usual, the most emotional part of the day for Smart seemed to come at the very end of her testimony when she described how she felt when she was taken to the Sandy Police Department and removed the wig and sunglasses Mitchell forced her to wear, bringing her "nine months of hell" to an end.
"I was so happy," Smart said.
The emotional testimony brought at least one juror to tears Tuesday. She was seen wiping her eyes as she walked out of the courtroom for the day.
Smart was expected to take the witness stand again Wednesday to finish her testimony and be cross-examined by the defense.
On Tuesday, Smart and prosecutors again portrayed Mitchell as a man driven by his sexual desires — particularly toward underage girls — who used religion as a way to manipulate others, who drank heavily, and who was keenly aware that people were searching for Smart and took many steps to keep her hidden from public view.
During her testimony, Smart was again asked to recount difficult moments of her abduction, talking about the numerous — almost daily — times she was raped, how she was forced to drink alcohol, smoke marijuana and view pornography. Smart even admitted at one point while in California that she was so down, she purposely got drunk without much prodding from Mitchell.
"I was so sick of being sober in life," she testified.
Smart only referred to Mitchell as "the defendant," when testifying, as she did Monday, not once mentioning him by his name.
While still hiding at the campsite in the foothills above her Federal Heights home, Mitchell would travel down to Salt Lake City three to five times a week, mainly to buy alcohol. The self-proclaimed prophet would then return to camp, get drunk and use vulgar language, Smart said.
"He would especially use (vulgar language) while he was drinking or before he would rape me," she said.
He told her she needed to drink, smoke and view pornography in order to "sink below all things so we could rise above all things," Smart said.
When Mitchell explained the role the abducted Smart was to play, he told her, "I needed to continue to be there and available for him when he needed me, wanted me, and have me there for his sexual needs and desires," she said.
Smart was also expected to "demonstrate" how to have sex in front of any future wife Mitchell planned to abduct.
Throughout her testimony, Smart recounted many stories of sexual abuse to the point that by the end of the day, she stared off blankly while recounting another incident of abuse and appeared as though she had had enough for the day.
Mitchell seemed so preoccupied with sex that he proudly named his genitals "Immanuel's pride," something prosecutors specifically pointed out to jurors that Mitchell didn't refer to his religion or his writings or his heart or anything else as his "pride."
Smart recounted how she was raped the morning of the day she was found when Mitchell set up camp for them at a park in Orem. "The tent was set up and I was raped for the last time," she said.
When she stepped off the witness stand at the end of the day's testimony, Smart received long embracing hugs from her father and mother, Ed and Lois Smart.
Also Tuesday, Smart testified about the times she either tried to escape or was close to being discovered, and how after each close call, Mitchell took steps to prevent it from happening again.
During one incident, while Mitchell and Barzee were arguing, Smart quietly slipped away and thought about making a run for it.
"They noticed very quickly. They said if I ever tried that again I would be stopped by an angel with a sword and I would be cut down," she testified.
On another occasion, more than two months after she was abducted, Mitchell and Barzee took Smart to the downtown Salt Lake City Library to look for maps of California. All three wore linen robes. Smart and Barzee wore veils over their faces.
Still, they were approached by a Salt Lake police homicide detective who wanted Smart to lift her veil because he had received calls from citizens concerned that the veiled teen might be the missing Smart girl. Mitchell, however, acted calmly to defuse the situation.
"He said that was not allowed in our religion and only my husband would ever see my face," Smart said. "(The officer) asked if he could be part of our religion for a day just so he could see my face, so that he could go back and say, 'No, it wasn't Elizabeth Smart,' it wasn't the girl they were looking for. … The defendant was very calm and very cool and said only her husband will be able to do that."
After about five or 10 minutes, Mitchell convinced the officer to leave without looking under Elizabeth's veil.
"I was mad at myself that I didn't say anything, mad at myself for not taking the chance, and I just felt like I was so close and I felt terrible. I felt terrible that the detective hadn't pushed harder and he just walked away. I felt upset at myself that I hadn't done anything, that I hadn't taken the chance that maybe something would have happened to me or my family. … I was just very upset," Smart testified, again staring blankly, her head slightly down while recounting the story.
After that incident, Mitchell did not allow Smart to leave their campsite until the day they left for Lakeside, Calif., near San Diego.
"I felt like I was being sentenced to 20 more years. I felt like the chances of me being found in California dropped a lot," she said of being forced to leave Utah — something prosecutors took extra time to point out, that she was being transported across state lines was against her will.
While in California, Smart talked about the time Mitchell went into town and was arrested for breaking into a church and spent several days in jail. She and Barzee were left alone in their new campsite in an out-of-the-way area in the foothills above Lakeside.
But by then, they had gone a week without food, drinking only rain water they were able to capture with a tarp, and Smart said she did not have the strength she needed to escape.
"As the days passed, it got harder and harder to move, until finally the only way we would move is if we had to go to the bathroom," she said.
That incident was also used as an example of how Mitchell took pride in fooling others. Mitchell was able to put aside his religious persona and humbly apologize before a judge, at which point he was let out of jail.
Smart testified that Mitchell could appear as a sincere, calm, genuine person when he wanted to, but would then brag later about how he outsmarted people and would say, "They don't know who they're dealing with."
During Tuesday's testimony, Smart also talked about the other attempts Mitchell made to abduct another child to make her one of his wives.
On July 24, 2002, Mitchell attempted to kidnap Smart's cousin, Olivia Wright. He prepared by packing the same clothes he used when he kidnapped Smart, and packed the same knife. Mitchell asked Smart if she recognized the knife and then if she remembered what he said the night he took her from her bedroom.
"I didn't say it exactly the way he had said it, so he repeated back to me word for word," Smart testified. "'I have a knife at your neck, don't make a sound or I will kill you and your family, get up quietly and come with me.' "
That kidnapping attempt did not work. Neither did another attempt in Lakeside when Mitchell posed as a man investigating the LDS Church and was invited to the home of a church member who had a young step-daughter. Again, Mitchell put his religious persona aside in an attempt to manipulate others, she said.
At other times, Mitchell used his full religious views to manipulate others, especially Barzee whom he would bestow "blessings" upon whenever she became angry at Mitchell, mainly for lusting too much over Elizabeth. After one blessing, Mitchell came up with a "schedule" when he could be with Barzee and when he could be with Elizabeth.
One day, Mitchell tried to break the schedule and force Elizabeth to have sex with him. Smart told Mitchell he was not sticking to the schedule and he would tell Barzee if he touched her. Mitchell left without raping her.
"One for the Smart team," she said proudly with a small smile, generating a few chuckles from the courtroom.
Another of Mitchell's "revelations" at one point was that Smart and Barzee should no longer drink or smoke — an announcement Smart believes was made so he didn't have to share his alcohol. Later, in California, Mitchell had another revelation they should all drink again.
Several times during Smart's testimony Tuesday, she talked about how Mitchell did what he could to prevent Smart from being discovered. The first time Mitchell took Smart down from the foothills into Salt Lake City, he made sure she clearly understood his rules.
"He told me that I needed to stay next to him at all times and if I tried to run away, I would be killed. He said I wasn't to talk to anybody. I wasn't to go anywhere without him," she said.
Smart was also forced to remove blue nail polish she had applied before being abducted.
"He said I couldn't leave any kind of mark or sign that I was Elizabeth Smart," she testified.
Mitchell took many steps to keep Smart hidden, including adding an extra veil to cover her striking blue eyes, making her wear a wig, threatening to kill her if she talked to anyone while they were in public and picking the most remote areas for campsites, both in Utah and California.
While moving between campsites in California at one point, Mitchell not only had Smart wear regular street clothes (which they had found discarded at a homeless camp) but made them move in the middle of the night.
Mitchell made sure Smart always had a story to tell if questioned by police or members of the public, giving her different names to use and different stories about why she, Mitchell and Barzee were traveling together.
Ultimately, it was Smart who turned the tables on Mitchell and manipulated him into returning to Utah, telling him there were more Mormon girls camps there and he'd have a better chance at finding another wife. Smart also convinced Mitchell to hitchhike, because she felt the chances of being discovered would be greater. To get him to do that, she convinced him that in order to rise above all things, she needed to experience all lows, as he had instructed her.
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