Victims were 'praying we weren't going to die'

UPDATE

DADE CITY -- Stephen Tuttle was 16 when he was left bleeding in the dark alongside State Road 54, shot in the back of the head.

He survived. Now 24, he went to court today to testify against the man who tried to kill him back in 1999: Lawrence Joey Smith.

Smith, the convicted triggerman who wounded Tuttle and executed 17-year-old Robert Crawford, is defending himself from the death penalty this week armed only with his jailhouse legal education.

To save his life, Smith is trying to persuade the jury that he didn’t pull the trigger -– that co-defendant Faunce Pearce, the accused ringleader, did it.

Tuttle testified that Pearce, angry the teens lost his drug money, ordered them in the backseat of his Trans Am and took them for a ride. Smith sat up front. They were surrounded by armed men.

"I was holding my best friend's hand,'' Tuttle testified, "praying we weren’t going to die.''

Then Pearce stopped the car.

"He told me … he told me to get out of the car,'' said Tuttle, his voice wavering.

"Did you feel that you had no choice?'' Assistant State Attorney Manny Garcia asked.

"I had no choice,'' Tuttle said.

"What happens upon you getting out of the car?'' Garcia asked.

Tuttle broke down on the stand. He covered his face with a tissue.

"He … he told me to get out of the car,'' Tuttle said, "and as I got out of the car, everything went … everything went blank. I don’t remember.''

Tuttle testified that he never saw who shot him from behind, but that Pearce never left the driver's seat. Other witnesses testified that it was Smith who shot both teens.

Keith Hammond, the attorney helping Smith’s defense, questioned the victim.

Jurors didn’t watch the victim –- they watched Smith’s reaction.

He had none. Smith sat stone-faced, a few feet from the one he tried to kill almost a decade ago, staring away from the witness stand.

Tuttle survived because the bullet ricocheted off his fingers before entering his head.

"I was putting on my hat and everything went dark,'' an emotional Tuttle testified. "I never heard a click. I never heard a bang. I never felt the bullet hitting my hand.''

He showed his wounded fingers and the bullet hole left in his head to the judge, jurors and lawyers.

Smith, though, never looked.

Smith has no formal legal training, except for nine years spent in the prison law library.

He fought for and won the right to defend his own life, and that day finally arrived today.

"Good afternoon everybody,'' Smith told jurors from the courtroom podium. "I'm going to preface this by saying I'm not a very good public speaker. This is a perilous situation I am in today. My very life is in your hands.

"Like the judge told you, my guilt or innocence is not the question before you today. It's should I live or die.''

But then Smith questioned his own guilt:

"I was not the one who held that gun and pulled that trigger that night,'' the defendant told the jury.

Another jury, however, decided that's exactly what he did when it convicted him of first-degree murder for executing Robert Crawford, 17, and attempted murder for trying to execute Stephen Tuttle, then 16.

But Smith is not the only one implicated in the crimes. Faunce Pearce, whose conviction and death sentence were overturned, is accused of being the leader of the scheme to execute the two teens over missing drug money.

Authorities say Pearce drove the Land O'Lakes teens to a remote stretch of State Road 54, but Smith pulled the trigger.

Smith's conviction was upheld on appeal, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned his death sentence, ruling in 2004 that the trial judge made a fundamental error in sentencing Smith.

When Smith delivered his opening statement to the jury this morning, his strategy to persuade the jury to spare his life appeared to hinge on mitigating his role in the crime and shifting blame to Pearce.

"You’re going to hear testimony about a lot of things I'm not proud of,” Smith said. "A lot of things I wish I could take back, especially my decision to get in that car that night.''

Smith wore a blue oxford shirt and pants. Two deputies sat nearby as he made his opening statement.

Smith said he will try to show why he should be allowed to live. "I will try to show my life and what led to my being involved in that situation to begin with, and what’s changed since then.''

Assistant State Attorney Manny Garcia's job is to persuade the jury to vote to end Smith’s life. There is no doubt who pulled the trigger, he told them.

"Robert Crawford was begging and pleading for his life,'' the prosecutor said. "He’s saying 'Please don’t do this.' "

"As he steps out of the vehicle, Lawrence Joey Smith raises his pistol and puts a bullet in the back of his brain.''

Previous coverage here and here.

- Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

Comments

[American]

A lawyer's dumbest client is himself. Way to go loser! Fry, moe-foe, fry!

[Art]

I hope they roast the little roach.

[Ms. Martin]

Hmmm. An eye for an eye...? And they don't "fry" or "roast" them anymore. They get to get a nice lil shot and go to sleep.

[donna young]

Robert didn't get a second chance at defending himself. Why the hell should you! You need to be off this earth you rotten low life.

[Crime doesn't pay]

4 of the 5 drug dealers removed from society due to death or prison. It's already a happy ending whether the defendants live or die. Tuttle will be back in "the thug life". It's only a matter of time...

[Ms. Richards]

I'm a strong believer that everyone should get a second chance, regradless of the crime they have committed. I feel no one have the right to determined rather a person live or die. The last time I read GOD makes the final decision. Yes, I do believe they should spend the rest of their life in prison, that way they have plenty of time to think about their actions, the life they took, and the pain they caused the victim's family.

[Arminius]

@American: you are just a hick and your father is your uncle.

@Mrs.Martin: "The nice li(tt)l(e) shot" you are mentioning here uses a compound that is no longer being used to euthanize animals, because is causes a great deal of pain and is therefore regarded as cruel.

@Donna Young: You wont feel any better if they kill the killer ... believe me. Besides ... What makes you so sure that L.J. Smith did it ? Were you there ?

Ms. Richards: A Christian who is not a bible thumping extremist. So glad to see those still exist in the US. Maybe there is hope for you people after all.

Arminius

[Think for Yourself]

If everyone believed in an Eye for an Eye... the whole world would be blind.

Nobody should take a life. Not even the state. That just makes killers of us all.

[A]

Think for Yourself:

That's rich, making a "statement" of your own by plagiarizing. Oh, the irony.