Webloggin » Scum Killer, Repeat Sex Offender Gets Death Sentence in Slaying of 9 Year Old Girl

9 year old Jessica Marie Lunsford was snatched from her bedroom, raped, hidden in a closet, wrapped in garbage bags and buried alive in a shallow grave while investigators searched frantically for the girl. Yet amazingly, 2 misguided members of the jury decided against the death penalty for the 49 year old repeat sex offender John Evander Couey. Thankfully Circuit Judge Ric Howard disagreed and told Couey point blank that he will be executed for his crimes.

NVERNESS, Fla. - John Evander Couey looked straight ahead as a judge told him he should be executed for crimes that led to new laws in many states cracking down on convicted sex offenders. The 49-year-old convicted sex offender was sentenced to death Friday for kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, raping her and burying her alive in his yard.
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Sheriff’s deputies hustled the handcuffed inmate out of the crowded courtroom.

The girl’s father, Mark Lunsford, teared up as he listened to Circuit Judge Ric Howard read a detailed history of the case for nearly an hour. He hugged relatives after the sentence was read.

Outside court, Lunsford had a message for Couey: “Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man.”

The jury that convicted Couey in March recommended 10-2 that he die for his crimes, but the decision was left to Howard.

Here is the court TV account:

Jessica Lunsford was last seen alive on the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2005. Her grandparents picked her up from the school bus stop in Homosassa, Fla. On the way home, they stopped at a Sonic restaurant to buy curly fries for Jessica before she went to Bible class. Family friend Sharon Armstrong brought her home that evening, and she watched television until her grandmother tucked her into bed at 9 p.m.

The next morning, Jessica was missing. Her bedroom and the rest of the rooms in her grandparents’ trailer were undisturbed, except for a purple stuffed dolphin that her father had won for her at the county fair four days earlier that was also missing.

Jessica’s clothes for school, which she had laid out in her room the night before, were untouched.

Authorities launched a massive investigation that included questioning of sex offenders in the area. They could not account for John Couey, who had fled to Georgia. When they located him, the mechanic allegedly confessed to abducting Jessica and told investigators they would find her behind the trailer he shared with relatives.

By the time Couey spoke to investigators, his sister, Dorothy Dixon, had already granted authorities permission to search the single-wide trailer where she and Couey lived with her boyfriend, daughter and her daughter’s husband.

In the search, investigators seized several items of evidence from Couey’s room that revealed trace evidence linking Jessica to the middle bedroom of the trailer. The items proved invaluable to the prosecution’s case against Couey, especially after a judge suppressed Couey’s confession, ruling that police violated his Miranda rights.

On the afternoon of March 18, 2005, authorities began digging behind the trailer in search of Jessica’s body. The excavation continued into the morning of March 19, when authorities found her body buried in a garbage bag.

Prosecutors in Couey’s capital murder trial introduced the two black plastic garbage bags into evidence. Jessica’s right index and middle fingers were poking out of the bags, which were knotted at her feet and her head.

Jurors in Couey’s trial also viewed the purple stuffed dolphin that Jessica was clutching when she was removed from the bag. Prosecutors did not remove the dolphin from the bag because of its condition.

The jury also saw the stereo speaker wire that was used to bind Jessica’s wrists. A fiber analyst testified that the ligatures matched wires that ran from inside Couey’s room to a makeshift antenna on his roof.

A DNA analyst with the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement testified that she matched Jessica’s DNA profile to two smears of blood found on Couey’s mattress, along with another stain, which was a mixture of Couey’s semen and her DNA.

Couey’s rap sheet was extensive:

Couey had a long list of convictions of his rap sheet. He had been arrested on many occasions for drug violations and was a habitual user of crack cocaine. According to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, past charges against Couey included “burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, disorderly intoxication, driving under the influence, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, fraud, insufficient funds, and larceny.” His driver’s license had been “suspended for 99 years.” In 1991 he had been arrested and charged with “fondling a child under the age of 16.”

[snip]
Bald with watery blue eyes, John Couey stands five feet four, weighs 125 pounds, and looks older than his age. He’s been in trouble with the law for most of his adult life, having been arrested 24 times in 30-year period. His arrival in Savannah, Georgia, was no exception to his pattern. Sometime after he checked into a homeless shelter, Savannah police questioned him regarding a possible marijuana-possession violation, but unaware of Florida’s interest in him, the police did not hold him.

The defense team tried to argue unsuccessfully that Couey was mentally retarded, a claim the judge also shrugged off. Nonetheless Couey almost escaped prosecution because he confessed without attorneys present and that confession was tossed out. Fortunately for those seeking justice Couey had incriminated himself to many jail guards and inmates so there was plenty left to build a case for the just sentence.

Despite the confession being tossed, Couey incriminated himself other times. Jail guards and investigators testified that he repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest, insisting that he hadn’t meant to kill the third-grader but panicked during an intense, nationally publicized police search.

Prosecutors also had overwhelming physical evidence, including DNA from the girl’s blood and Couey’s semen on a mattress in his room as well as her fingerprints in a closet where investigators said she was hidden.

Howard recounted the evidence in detail, including Couey wrapping her in two garbage bags, putting her alive into a hole then piling a foot of dirt on top of her.

“His actions crushed the very breath and life out of Jessica Marie Lunsford,” Howard said.

My only regret is that Couey’s execution, if ever met, will be more humane than that of the horrors he committed against this young child. If I had my way Couey’s fate would be equally as horrific.