Couey arrives on death row

STARKE -- John Couey arrived on death row Monday afternoon, three days after he received the death penalty for the murder of Jessica Lunsford.

His new home while awaiting execution is the Florida State Prison in Starke, where he joins 36 other death row inmates. The majority — 345 of 381 — are kept at nearby Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.

State prison officials said they are taking no special security precautions, even though legal experts believe the 49-year-old could be in danger because of his notorious crime.

"We don't foresee a threat at this time," said Gretel Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Death row inmates spend approximately 23 hours of their days alone in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell, mixing for an hour during recreation three times a week. Plessinger said security on the "yard" during recreation is tight.

Jessica's father, Mark, said Friday he wouldn't mind if Couey died at the hands of another inmate, saying “I would be buying a lot of cigarettes for someone.”

Couey’s neighbors include four fellow convicted murderers:

• James Duckett, a police officer, sentenced in June 1988 for raping and murdering a 11-year-old girl while on duty in Lake County;
• Steven Hayward, sentenced in June 2007 for fatally shooting a newspaper carrier in St. Lucie County;
• Jesse Guardado, sentenced in October 2005 for killing a 75-year-old community activist in Walton County for drug money;
• William Davis, sentenced in August 2006 for fatally stabbing a mother and her 16-year-old daughter in their Duval County home using three kitchen knifes.

--John Frank, Times staff writer

Jessica's other grandma

Sharon Armstrong doesn't like the iconic picture of Jessica Lunsford in her pink hat.

"To me, it means separation," she said of the photo, which was disseminated throughout the state -- and country -- when Jessica disappeared. "I never saw her wear that pink hat."

Instead, Armstrong keeps more personal pictures of Jessica by her computer, and one of the little girl's dolls.

For Armstrong, who described herself as a "second grandma" to Jessica, the last two years have been tough. It was Armstrong who drove Jessica home from youth group the night she was kidnapped. She helped her with her math homework; the two loved scrap booking together.

"It's difficult because for two years I've been waiting for this day," she said. "It's not closure, but at least it's the end of this part."

Now she can spend more time thinking about how much she loved Jessica, Armstrong said, instead of worrying about the next court date.

Still, she will be restless until Couey dies.

"I'd like to see it over with," she said. "I'm grieving while he's breathing, eating, watching TV."

If Couey truly accepted God, as he claims to, she said, he would waive appeals and confront his ultimate punisher.

"God made a place for him and he's going there."

-- Elena Lesley

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

Be a man -- don't appeal

Mark Lunsford and Sheriff Jeff Dawsy told media that they hoped John Couey would take responsibility for his actions, that he'd "stand up and be a man."

But they added that they doubt he'll do that.

Dawsy approached Couey after the sentence was handed down and advised the killer to waive his appeals, "to expedite his meeting with the maker."

Lunsford agreed, saying Couey should "skip all those appeals. Take your punishment and be done with it." Experts have estimated that the appeals for this complicated case could take longer than the average 12 years.

Since Jessica Lunford's murder, Couey has blamed everyone but himself -- his sister, the sheriff's department, the system, Lunsford said.

He added: "Didn't nobody else do this but him."

-- Elena Lesley

"He's an animal"

As Judge Ric Howard explained his rationale for sentencing John Couey to death, he described Couey's murder of Jessica Lunsford as "determined albeit savage."

In a press conference following the hearing, Sheriff Jeff Dawsy took Howard's words a step further.

"John Couey is an animal," he said, after journalists coaxed him to give his opinion of the convicted killer. What he did "was worse than a savage."

He added that he had confronted Couey after the sentence was announced and looked into his eyes.

"It was cold," he said. "Nothing there."

-- Elena Lesley

Judge orders death for Couey

INVERNESS - A judge sentenced John Couey to death today for the 2005 kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

Citrus Circuit Judge Ric Howard's sentence followed the recommendation of a Miami jury this spring.

Defense attorneys argued in July that Couey, 49, should not be executed because he is mentally retarded. But Howard was not convinced, declaring Couey eligible for death in a recent decision.

During Friday's hearing, he recounted the history of the case, from Jessica's disappearance in Feb. 2005 to the recent Atkin's hearing to assess Couey's mental abilities. Howard classified the crime as "HAC -- heinous, atrocious and cruel," and described how Couey had boasted of his sexual exploits to a jail guard.

Couey had "made crude, vulgar and repulsive comments," he said, emphasizing each adjective, "about his sexual experiences with a nine-year-old child."

Though he admitted Couey may have "some intellectual limitations" and a troubled past, Howard said such factors couldn't mitigate the crime he had committed.

Couey "crushed the very life and breath out of Jessica Marie Lunsford," he said.

Said Mark Lunsford after the hearing: "We won. Jessie won."

-- Elena Lesley, Times staff writer

The decision-maker

INVERNESS -- The man in the spotlight today is Circuit Judge Ric Howard.

The 54-year-old Citrus County judge will make his first ruling from the bench about life or death today when he decides the fact of John Couey for the death of Jessica Lunsford.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to the bench in 2000 and for the past four-plus years he's served as the only felony criminal judge in Citrus County. But this case is not the first time Howard has attracted national attention.

The 1978 Stetson College of Law graduate is generally known as a tough judge. He once sentenced a teenager to prison for stealing a six-pack of beer and slipping away from a patrol car. In 2005, he gave an 18-year-old man with no previous record a 30-year prison term for vehicular manslaughter after a fatal car accident, which incited charges of racism and community outrage.

Then again, the state appeals court the same year said Howard was too lenient when he dismissed two charges against an Inverness man arrested for driving with a license suspended and possession of marijuana.

Howard's ruling about whether Couey is mentally retarded shed light on his thinking: He wrote that Couey's deeds "are far from simple acts" and that they showed a deliberate attempt to commit the crime and hide his involvement.

He could make more comments during today's hearing, which is expected to last about an hour.

--John Frank, Times staff writer

State prison officials making plans

INVERNESS -- Apparently John Couey isn't the only one anticipating the death sentence.

State prison officials began this week making plans to house the notorious inmate on death row. If he gets the death penalty, an official for the Department of Corrections told the St. Petersburg Times that Couey would likely be housed at Florida State Prison in Starke away from most other death row inmates.

The vast majority -- 345 of 381 -- of those awaiting death are housed at nearby Union Correctional Institution in Raiford. Officials said the decision on where to put Couey is based on available bed space. But safety concerns are also on their minds. Legal experts believe Couey could be in real danger because child molesters are considered at the lowest of the low among prisoners.

Considering all death row inmates committed notorious crimes, extra precautions are rare, said Gretel Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. But she added, "we're not going to put him in a position to be harmed."

-- John Frank, Times staff writer

The case for the death penalty

Prosecutors listed five factors in a court filing that asks a Citrus judge to impose the death penalty.

In legal-speak, these are called “aggravating factors.” A list is prescribed in state law and established in previous high-court rulings. Prosecutors must prove at least one element and show how it outweighs the contrary “mitigating factors.”

Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway says these five apply to the Jessica Lunsford murder:

• Committed while engaged in a sexual battery or kidnapping
• Committed for purpose of avoiding arrest
• Especially heinous, atrocious or cruel
• Victim was less than 12 years old
• Cold, calculated and premeditated killing

“Even if only one of the five aggravating circumstances had been proven, that factor could far outweigh the mitigation present in this case,” Ridgway wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “The jury recommended the court impose a sentence of death upon the defendant. That recommendation is entitled to great weight.”

--John Frank, Times staff writer

Couey expects death penalty in new tape

INVERNESS -- A judge will decide whether Jessica Lunsford's killer will get the death penalty Friday, exactly 2 1/2 years from the day she disappeared from her Homosassa home.

But John Couey, the 49-year-old sex offender convicted by a Miami jury of kidnapping, raping and killing the 9-year-old girl earlier this year, already knows the outcome:

Death.

He said so himself in a jail house conversation with his aunt (click here to hear recorded conversation), Virginia Kloetzer, according to a copy obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.

"We all know what he's going to do," he said during the August 3 visit.

"Well, me too," his aunt replied. "But you know God's in control of everything."

"At this point," Couey said, "I don't worry about it because it's in his hands. ... I don't let it bother me."

It's unclear whether Couey was referring to the judge's hands or those of God. But to him, the end is real. He decided he wants to be cremated "when they finally do my execution."

The recording provides a unique insight into the mind of a notorious killer on the eve of his most important court appearance. The tone of his rough voice is calm, like a man resigned to the state of things, though he allows himself a laugh at times.

For the most part, Couey has kept silent — refusing interview requests and contact with family — aside from veiled confessions of remorse to jail guards earlier this year.

Those statements to guards were key to his conviction. And these new comments wouldn't help his case.

At another point in the conversation, his aunt talked about the impact of the case on the family, and Couey expressed regret.

"It was stupid of me," Couey said.

"Well it was," his aunt replied. "But one person doing something they shouldn't do doesn't mean the whole family's that way."

Later, Couey commented about how his attorneys performed at trial. His aunt said that they "did the best they could with nothing to work with."

But he was upset and felt "they could do a little better."

Then he allowed, "I didn't help them out much by running my mouth." They both laughed. "But you know me, I couldn't keep quiet."

--John Frank, Times staff writer