SALT LAKE CITY – Authorities say the Utah street preacher convicted of kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart is being moved to a federal prison nearly 8 1/2 years after he was arrested.
A Salt Lake County jail lieutenant says the U.S. Marshals Service picked up Brian David Mitchell on Wednesday. The Bureau of Prisons declined to say where the 57-year-old will be housed.
Jurors in December convicted Mitchell on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for sex. He was sentenced to life in prison and plans no appeal.
Since his 2003 arrest, Mitchell has been housed in the jail or at the Utah state mental hospital.
Smart was 14 in 2002 when she was kidnapped, raped and held captive for nine months. Now 23, she attends Brigham Young University.
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