Jury selection begins in Lunsford murder trial

[SoulTrainOz]

Potential jurors were questioned for the first time Monday for the murder trial of a convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

John Evander Couey, 47, appeared in court wearing a gray suit as officials began preliminary questioning of a pool of 284 potential jurors. Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, sat in court behind the prosecutors' table, across the courtroom from Couey, a former neighbor.

The girl's disappearance and the discovery of her body in March 2005 prompted tougher laws for sex offenders, shocked and outraged residents of rural Citrus County and was chronicled by news outlets nationwide.

Because of the pervasive publicity in the county, state Circuit Judge Ric Howard moved jury selection to Tavares in Lake County, northwest of Orlando.

Couey is charged with 1st-degree murder, sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary. He has pleaded not guilty, although investigators say he admitted to the crimes. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Before beginning jury selection, Howard ruled that defense attorney Dan Lewan could not question Mark Lunsford about his finances or introduce evidence of pornography found in the delete bin of a computer in his home after his daughter disappeared.

Howard also said he would decide later on a motion by Lewan to keep the jury from seeing photographs of Jessica's body. Lewan said the photos are "difficult to look at" and would be prejudicial.

The state's job to convict Couey was made more difficult when Howard ruled June 30 that his taped confession could not be used as evidence in the trial because investigators had ignored his requests for an attorney.

Howard ruled, however, that prosecutors can still use the discovery of Jessica's body buried outside the mobile home where Couey had been living, as well as a bloody mattress from the mobile home that has Jessica's DNA on it.

Other incriminating statements he made later to investigators and a jail guard also can be used during the trial. Prosecutors say they are confident they have enough evidence to convict him.

Jessica was found March 19, 2005, buried with her stuffed dolphin behind the mobile home, which was across the street from her house in Homosassa. She had been kidnapped from her bedroom three weeks earlier. The day before her body was found, Couey had told investigators where to look.

The 3rd-grader was alive when she was buried in garbage bags with her hands bound by speaker wire, an autopsy found. The medical examiner ruled she died of asphyxiation.

Outrage over Jessica's slaying prompted the Florida Legislature to pass a bill establishing a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life behind bars for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger, with lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite tracking after they are freed. At least 11 other states have followed suit.

Since his daughter's death, Mark Lunsford has become a somewhat reluctant but nationally recognized advocate for tougher legislation to keep track of convicted sex offenders.

But it becomes intensely personal for him again this week.

"I want to see the person who murdered my daughter be found guilty and be given the death penalty," he said earlier.

(source: Associated Press)

[SoulTrainOz]

Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel

TAVARES -- When Circuit Judge Richard Howard halted the search for a jury to try John Couey, an additional 1,300 prospective panelists were standing by in Lake County.

But the largest jury pool in the county's history couldn't overcome
complications that stymied the judge's effort to find a fair and impartial jury to hear the death-penalty case against Couey in last year's abduction, rape and slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford.

Many who answered the call for jury duty brought strong opinions about Couey's guilt. Most knew of Howard's decision just weeks earlier to toss Couey's confession, a ruling widely discussed and debated on national news shows.

Hoping to shield the jury from the influence of news reports and prevailing opinions, Howard announced he would sequester jurors -- possibly for weeks in Inverness, where the trial was to be held. Prospective jurors were unnerved to learn their contact with friends and family would be so restricted that even their telephone calls home would be "loosely monitored."

They got more fidgety when Howard suggested their stay in Citrus County, where the crime was committed, could be longer than he first predicted. If jury selection stretched into next week, key witnesses whom the defense planned to use to fight for Couey's life would not be available to testify until August, meaning the jury might not be allowed to go home until then.

One of the prospective jurors said he felt as if he would be in danger if he did not find Couey guilty -- an example of how high feelings are running about the 47-year-old convicted sex offender.

When Howard finally gave up Thursday, the would-be jurors cheered, relieved.

The judge made a difficult but correct call to stop searching for jurors, said Charles Rose, a law professor at Stetson University who has followed the case closely.

"A few months delay may work to the court's advantage," he said.

As time passes, people will forget details of the case, particularly Couey's confession, which was ruled inadmissible because detectives ignored his request for a lawyer, Rose said.

Confession was a magic word during jury selection.

Prospective jurors who mentioned it disappeared from the jury pool. More than two-thirds of those booted from jury duty knew Couey admitted snatching and killing the girl, who was buried alive in a grave behind a trailer where Couey lived.

Howard, prosecutors and defense lawyers whittled the first group of prospects from 288 to 58 during three days in which they were asked what they knew about the case and whether jury service would cause them an "undue" financial or family hardship.

But State Attorney Brad King said Howard got a clear picture of the pitfalls Thursday when a group of those who passed the first round of questions paraded to the bench, saying they had suddenly been exposed to the case.

Conducted privately at the bench, the judge's chats with those prospective jurors -- who ultimately were discharged -- will not be available to the public until Monday.

But Howard directed a court reporter Friday to transcribe the bench conversation with one of the prospective jurors, Edwin Rivera of Clermont, who had said he felt threatened.

"Someone in my hometown recognized me," he said. "They approached me."

Rivera, a teenager who was dressed in a T-shirt bearing the caption "There's an evil monkey in my closet" said he feared for his safety if Couey was not found guilty.

He did not identify the person who spoke to him.

"I just don't want him to end up coming to my house and finding where I live," Rivera told the judge, prosecutors and Couey's lawyers during the sidebar. "If it is going to be like that I don't want anybody coming up to me like that. I don't want to be on the jury."

Howard did not return a call Friday seeking further explanation.

He has not yet set a new trial date nor decided where jury selection will take place, although it will be outside the 5th Judicial Circuit, court-operations manager John Sullivan said. The circuit covers Lake, Citrus, Hernando, Marion and Sumter counties.

When he canceled jury selection, Howard explained that he had tried to keep the process in the circuit "with an eye on the bottom line," noting that taxpayers foot the bill.

Jury managers realized Couey's trial posed special problems and summoned 3,500 people with a Florida drivers license or state ID card that listed a Lake County address.

Not counting the prospective jurors in the courtroom, the available jury pool was 1,338 when Howard called it quits, said Terry Shafar, jury manager in Lake County.

The judge also may have prolonged the jury search by refusing to dismiss 69 people who begged out Monday while meeting with him to "pre-qualify," jury records show.

He let 61 go that day but refused to excuse a woman whose spouse was in the hospital, a man whose sister lived a mile from Couey and a woman married to a sex offender.

They were dismissed later.

Source : Orlando Sentinel

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-couey1506jul15,0,5579857.