Land O'Lakes killer gets life sentence

DADE CITY -- Lawrence Joey Smith, once convicted and sentenced to death in a gruesome central Pasco killing nearly a decade ago, won a major victory in court Tuesday.

Instead of death row, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Smith's death sentence was overturned in 2004 because of judicial error. Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper presided over his second penalty phase earlier this year. Smith represented himself with the help of a court-appointed lawyer. He showed impressive legal acumen, but jurors in that phase still recommended by a 7-5 vote that he should die.

But Tepper, who by law must give great weight to the jury's recommendation, ruled that the mitigators in Smith's case -- including drug addiction, the lack of a positive role model and his conduct in prison -- outweighed the aggravating factors.

In September 1999, authorities said Smith and a drug dealer named Faunce Pearce took Robert Crawford, who was 17, and Stephen Tuttle, then 16, to a remote stretch of State Road 54 in Land O'Lakes after the teens lost $1,200 in drug money.

Smith shot Tuttle in the back of the head. He and Pearce drove on, not knowing that Tuttle had survived because the bullet hit his fingers before entering his brain.

Crawford was killed as he pleaded for his life.

Crawford's mother attended the hearing Tuesday but left without speaking to reporters.

Stephen Tuttle, now 24, said he was disappointed in the sentence.

"I'm a little aggravated about it," he said. "Rob didn't get a second chance.

"I really believe (Smith) should have gotten the death penalty," Tuttle added. "But you know, I can go on with my life and he can't really."

But Tuttle has been handicapped by the shooting, which happened a week after his 16th birthday. Because of short-term memory loss, he can't keep a job. He would like to finish high school.

Pearce's conviction and death sentence were overturned in 2006 because of lawyer error. He awaits retrial on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Pearce, 45, will again face the death penalty.

Keith Hammond, the attorney who assisted Smith, credited him for the work he did on his own case -- exhaustive research and authoring of motions in the prison library -- which, in effect, spared his life.

"He is phenomenal. He's not the same person he was," Hammond said. "He understands capital law as well as any capital attorney. He could teach it."

--Molly Moorhead, Times staff writer