This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Minutes after Brian David Mitchell suffered an apparent seizure in the courtroom Tuesday morning and was wheeled away by paramedics, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball turned his attention to how the episode might affect the trial.
"Do we send the jury home today?" Kimball asked attorneys. "Can we still end the trial by the 10th [of December]?"
As it happened, jurors went home for the day; attorneys promised the trial would be finished on time, although longer court days might be required; and testimony was set to resume Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.
Mitchell, 57, was taken to University Hospital and later returned to the Salt Lake County jail. No other information was available about his condition or manner of treatment.
The self-proclaimed prophet is on trial for the 2002 kidnapping of then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Defense attorneys have been trying to convince jurors that their client was insane at the time of the alleged crimes.
The apparent seizure occurred in the middle of the already bizarre spectacle of Mitchell's daily courtroom singing.
Mitchell entered the courtroom at about 8:30 a.m. while singing "O Holy Night." Minutes later, as the judge was discussing a legal issue with attorneys, and before the jury was seated, Mitchell stopped singing.
He then locked eyes with defense attorney Wendy Lewis, went rigid and made a high-pitched bleating sound. He then fell against Lewis and his head flew back.
Lewis told the judge, "He's having a seizure, Your Honor." Lewis and a U.S. Marshal then laid the defendant on the floor.
Another marshal called 911. There was no sound from Mitchell for a minute or two, and then he could be heard breathing heavily. Attorneys said later Mitchell was trembling.
Meanwhile, psychiatrists Noel Gardner and Paul Whitehead, who were in the courtroom, attended to Mitchell. Four minutes after the seizure began, the judge called a recess.
Mitchell lay still for about a minute, at which time Lewis asked, "Is he breathing?" A marshal replied that he was. Two minutes later, paramedics arrived.
At that point, Mitchell was lying partially on his left side with his shoulders on the ground, his eyes closed. His right fist was clenched. The paramedic then asked Mitchell if he could open his eyes. "Can you talk to me at all?" the paramedic asked.
At one point, Mitchell opened his eyes and raised his head, and the paramedic told him they were going to give him oxygen and again asked, "Can you talk to me? Tell me where you're at."
The paramedic placed an oxygen mask over Mitchell's face and told him to breathe. When Mitchell appeared to try and remove the mask, the paramedic said, "Just leave it there, Immanuel."
Presumably, someone on the defense team had informed paramedics that Mitchell prefers to go by the name Immanuel David Isaiah.
Mitchell then lay quietly as another paramedic took his pulse. Moments later, he was lifted onto a gurney and told to sit back. At 8:54 a.m., he was wheeled out to an ambulance.
Moments later, attorney Lewis began sobbing and was hugged by another woman in the courtroom.
Lewis later explained the scene sparked a flashback of her husband, James Humlicek, who died of a heart attack four years ago. Lewis told The Tribune that, as with Mitchell, she was sitting beside her husband when he "fell into me and I helped him onto the floor."
"I was quite surprised at how I reacted," Lewis said of breaking down in the courtroom. But she added that Gardner, her treating physician at the time — who happens to be a prosecution witness at Mitchell's trial — assured her "it was a completely normal reaction."
This is not the first time Mitchell has had something akin to a seizure.
Earlier in the trial, Elizabeth Smart testified that Mitchell had at least one seizure during her nine months of captivity.
Mitchell's stepdaughter Rebecca Woodridge told reporters Mitchell had a seizure at the jail in December and has continued having them "every few months."
Referring to Mitchell's long-standing refusal of mainstream medical treatment, Woodridge added, "They'll take him to the hospital and he'll refuse treatment. He won't take anything."
"This isn't something he's making up," Woodridge said, reacting to speculation that Mitchell might have been faking the seizure. "These are real."
Defense attorney Robert Steele told reporters: "We watched a seizure. ... I don't think anybody suspects that it wasn't."
Smart has testified Mitchell abducted her at knife point from her Federal Heights home in the early hours of June 5, 2002, then forced her to hike to his camp in the nearby foothills where he made her a plural wife and raped her almost daily until her rescue on March 12, 2003.
Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, now 67, were with Smart when several citizens spotted them on State Street in Sandy and called police. Barzee, who pleaded guilty, is serving a 15-year prison term.
Sheena McFarland and Cimaron Neugebauer contributed to this report. —
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O For past trial coverage, including transcripts of Elizabeth Smart's testimony and photo galleries, visit sltrib.com/topics/mitchell.