Couey sentencing delayed two weeks

INVERNESS — A Citrus judge delayed the sentencing for Jessica Lunsford's convicted killer on Wednesday, pushing the long-awaited court appearance back to Aug. 24.

Circuit Judge Ric Howard last month scheduled an Aug. 10 hearing for John Couey but a busy court schedule forced the judge to delay. Howard's judicial assistant said this week's docket included about 600 cases and he didn't have enough time to prepare a formal decision about Couey's punishment.

In March, a Miami jury found Couey guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing the 9-year-old Homosassa girl in February 2005. The panel recommended the death penalty, but Howard has the final word.

Attorneys in the case are still waiting for the judge's decision on whether Couey is mentally retarded, as defense lawyers argued in a July 17 hearing. That ruling is expected in the next few days.

John Frank, Times staff writer

Formal Couey sentencing delayed

INVERNESS -- Circuit Judge Ric Howard put off John Couey's formal sentencing indefinitely after defense attorneys agreed to a delay at a hearing Thursday morning.

A Miami jury found Couey guilty earlier this month and recommended the death sentence. The judge will make the final decision on punishment but must give great weight to the jury's advice.

State law requires that formal sentencing to take place within 30 days of the jury’s recommendation, or Couey must be sentenced to life in prison.

Defense attorneys waived their right to a hearing within that timeframe, but no date for the sentencing was determined.

First, the court must hold a hearing about Couey's alleged mental retardation. If found retarded, he would not be eligible for the death penalty.

Attorneys expect this two-day proceeding to come at the end of April.

--John Frank

Couey attorneys want re-trial

INVERNESS — Defense attorneys for John Couey are asking for a new trial.

In a new motion, the public defender’s office charges prosecutorial misconduct contributed to Couey not receiving a fair and impartial trial.

Couey was convicted by a Miami jury earlier this month for burglary, kidnapping, rape and murder in the death of Jessica Lunsford. Days later, jurors recommended a death sentence.

Couey’s attorneys argue a number of points where the judge erred, such as wrongly denying defense challenges of jurors in the jury selection process and refusing to grant the defense additional preemptory challenges.

Defense attorneys said the verdict was contrary to the law and evidence and is against the weight of evidence.

Tuesday’s filing is a perfunctory step in the appeals process of a capital case. The motion could be heard at Thursday’s previously scheduled status conference in Inverness.

--John Frank

Is death enough?

Many in Citrus County don't want John Couey to be executed.

They want him buried alive. They want him released into the general population and ripped apart by other prisoners. They want him to suffer, like Jessica Lunsford suffered.

Given this overwhelming rage, is death enough? journalists asked during Wednesday evening's press conference.

It has to be, Mark Lunsford responded.

He admitted that those sentenced to death will never undergo "the misery that they caused their victims."

But, he said, bloody revenge isn't the answer.

"If we acted the way they do, we'd be barbaric," he said. "We'd be vigilantes."

-- Elena Lesley

Just like in the movies ...

At times testimony in the John Couey trial became so graphic, jurors had to distance themselves from the proceedings psychologically.

Marvin Gunn, 38, said he tried to imagine the evidence was part of a horror movie.

The jury's film selections helped this effort. One of their first nights together, jurors watched "Saw," a painfully gory flick about the "Jigsaw" serial killer.

That helped with the desensitization process, Gunn said.

-- Elena Lesley

A permanent impression

The three jurors who spoke to media said some elements of the John Couey trial will forever haunt them.

Osvaldo Pradere, 47, an alternate juror, is the father of two young children.

"I will definitely hold them closer," he said, after hearing what happened to Jessica Lunsford. "It will change my life forever." Osvaldo was particularly upset that the girl had been taken from her own home.

Parents try to keep their kids safe in day-to-day life, at the mall, in the park.

"Unfortunately, in our society, our kids aren't even safe in their own homes, in their own beds," he said.

Thais Prado said she was most disturbed by the images of Jessica's corpse.

The gruesome pictures "are very alive in my mind," she said. "Those are images that are going to be very hard to forget, if I ever do."

-- Elena Lesley

Finally, they speak

After staring at the jury from across the courtroom for weeks, wondering what members were thinking, journalists finally got the chance to pepper several jurors with questions Wednesday evening.

As their comrades fled to an undisclosed hotel, three brave jurors stayed behind to confront the press pack.

In Spanish and English, they weighed their words carefully.

"We made sure to follow the law in every decision that we took," said Thais Prado, a petite 20-year-old who wore a small gold cross around her neck. She said the jurors had found the evidence against Couey overwhelming.

There was debate, however, about the defendant's intellectual abilities. Some jurors were convinced he was mentally retarded and others were not. The jurors declined to say who, exactly, voted against the death penalty.

Did they buy Couey's courtroom doodling? journalists wanted to know.

"It could be natural; it could be a show," Prado said. "We don't know for sure."

The majority of jurors did decide, however, that Couey's tough life and mental limitations did not excuse the crime.

"It was unforgivable," Prado said.

-- Elena Lesley

A taste of Homosassa

Mark Lunsford, and others from the Fifth Judicial Circuit, gathered outside the courthouse Wednesday evening, praising the work of Miami's jurors.

Media representatives clamored to get shots, audio or quotes during a pre-arranged press conference, pushing their way forward and arguing over camera angles. More turned up to find out whether John Couey would live or die than did to hear the jury's guilty verdict.

Mark thanked the jurors for their service, embracing several that had stayed behind to talk to the press. One, Thais Prado, started to tear up and urged him to stay strong.

She told him she was "proud to have helped in the trial."

Mark asked the media throng not to hound the jurors.

"Maybe some of them would like to go home and put this thing behind them," he said, and then joked, "I know you'll be up on my doorstep."

While he, and others, said today was an achievement for the justice system, Mark emphasized that he would not abandon the fight against pedophiles.

"Don't you turn your backs on these kids," he warned journalists. "There's a story every day about a child."

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy and State Attorney Brad King delivered similar messages.

"There are other John Coueys out there," Dawsy said. "If you're there, we're coming for you."

-- Elena Lesley

A promise kept

As John Couey hobbled out of Courtroom 4-1, characteristically bent over, the room filled with embraces.

"Closure," several supporters murmured to Mark Lunsford as they hugged each other, eyes red. Lunsford then approached Prosecutor Ric Ridgway and gripped his hand.

"Thank you."

Ridgway responded, humbly: "I told you this was what we were going to do."

-- Elena Lesley

Couey gets death

A Miami jury thinks John Couey should die for the kidnap, rape and murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

After just over an hour of deliberation, and in a vote of ten to two, jurors recommended that the convicted killer be put to death. The Lunsford family sat quietly as the verdict was read, Archie, Jessica's grandfather, wrapping his arm around his wife.

Mark Lunsford shut his eyes briefly in relief. Archie extended his arm to rest on the backs of both his wife and son.

As usual, Couey appeared unemotive, fiddling with his tie and looking at the ceiling.

During closing statements this morning, attorneys for the state and defense instructed jurors to weigh the circumstances of the crime against any mitigating factors. Prosecutor Ric Ridgway urged them to vote for death.

There is only one word that encompasses the horror of Couey's crime, he said.

"Evil."

Whatever abuse happened in Couey's early life, whatever intellectual disadvantages he suffers from, "the choices John Couey made, with his life and the life of Jessica Lunsford, outweigh everything."

The jury agreed.

-- Elena Lesley