The mobile memorial

Jeanna Gullett of Inverness expresses her preference for Couey's fate following the sentencing of John Couey. [Stephen J. Coddington | Times]

Phyllis Colucci takes Jessica Lunsford with her wherever she goes. To the supermarket. To the beauty parlor. On vacation.

"It keeps her memory alive," said Colucci, who always carries a small stuffed bear with Jessica's picture attached. "It's like she gets to do these things."

Colucci, 67, turned out for Couey's sentencing Friday carrying a white bear -- larger than the one she usually totes around -- and the "pink hat" picture of Jessica. "For all she had to BEAR," the picture reads.

The Inverness resident first started carrying a bear 15 years ago after a young girl in Ohio was raped and murdered. After Jessica was murdered in 2005, she added a second bear to the traveling memorial.

"I'm a grandma and a great grandma," Colucci said. "That could have been one of my babies."

A picture of Jessica was pinned to the right of her shirt's collar. One of her granddaughter and grandchild was attached to the left.

But that wasn't the end of the display. Colucci's daughter, Jeanna Gullett, held up a poster outside the courtroom after Couey's sentence was announced. It read "no needle" -- next to a syringe taped to the poster -- and showed Couey being buried in black garbage bags.

"The needle's too good for him," Colucci said, adding that she hoped Couey would be executed soon.

"He gets to sit and color and (Jessica) can't do that," she said. "Let's get this done quickly so he doesn't get to color for very much longer."

-- Elena Lesley