Jury convicts kidnapper of Elizabeth Smart

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A jury found a rambling street preacher guilty today of the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in a case that has tugged at hearts around the nation ever since the Utah teenager was snatched from her bedroom and resurfaced nine months later.

Brian David Mitchell could face up to a life in prison when he is sentenced.

Smart and her family have hoped for the guilty verdict and a long sentence to end the ordeal that began when she was taken from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint and held captive for nine months when she was 14.

Smart, now 23, attended the entire trial and provided gripping testimony, describing how she woke up one night to the feel of a cold, jagged knife and being thrust into "nine months of hell" in a mountainside camp.

She said she was forced into a polygamous marriage and endured nearly daily rapes before she was found.