SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly eight years after Elizabeth Smart was snatched from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint, the woman who pleaded guilty to the 2002 kidnapping is headed to prison.
Wanda Eileen Barzee was sentenced Friday to two terms of up to 15 years in prison, to run concurrently, in back-to-back hearings in state and federal court.
“I know the gravity of my crimes and how serious they are,” Barzee, 64, said during the federal hearing. “I’m just so sorry again for all the pain and suffering I caused upon the Smart family.”
Barzee will likely be held at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas, where she can be treated for mental illness. She will get credit for the seven years she has spent behind bars in her federal case.
In November, Barzee pleaded guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines.
She has agreed to testify in pending cases against her now-estranged husband, Brian David Mitchell.
Smart, now 22, was 14 when she was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom. She was found nine months later, in March 2003, walking the streets of a Salt Lake City suburb with Barzee and Mitchell.
Smart’s father, Ed, said Elizabeth said the 15-year federal prison term wasn’t enough.
“I think the point here today is that we don’t want to see anyone hurt by (Barzee) again,” Ed Smart said.
