Posted on 04/21/2005 4:18:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HOMOSASSA - Jessica Marie ``Jessie'' Lunsford spent the last hours of her life bound and buried alive in a partial kneeling position while she clutched one of her favorite dolls, a purple stuffed dolphin, prosecutors say in documents released Wednesday. When her body was found buried March 19 in a 4-foot- deep grave, the 9-year-old Citrus County girl was wrapped in two plastic trash bags that were knotted at her head and feet, the state attorney's office said in 292 pages of evidence - released to the defense Tuesday - that revealed the nature of her death.
The files include statements from investigators, the coroner's office and John Evander Couey, 46, the convicted sex offender who investigators say gave them a statement saying he raped and killed Jessie.
The documents released Wednesday say Jessie's wrists were bound with stereo wire and two of her fingers poked through the plastic, arguably an indication she tried to escape her makeshift tomb.
The documents also say she was kept alive for an unspecified period near the home she shared with her father, Mark, and grandparents, Archie and Ruth.
Authorities say Couey gave them information only her killer would know.
Jessie was buried 150 yards from her home, behind a trailer Couey shared with three other adults.
She was dressed in shorts and a tank-top shirt, different from the nightgown authorities and her family say she wore before she disappeared.
A coroner's report states she suffocated.
The documents say there was no other sign of trauma.
Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino would not discuss the taped statements by Couey or other details of the case.
The recording ``will not be released to the public until the trial,'' Magrino said.
Couey is charged with first- degree murder, sexual battery on a child under 12, kidnapping, and burglary with battery.
Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted on the murder charge.
Couey, despite his recorded statement to authorities, has pleaded not guilty.
His court-appointed attorney, Assistant Public Defender Dan Lewan, could not be reached for comment.
Investigators say Jessie's grave was partially concealed by a mound of leaves and debris that littered the back yard where she was buried. It is still not known whether she was buried before deputies, volunteers and search dogs combed the yard in the first days of their search.
Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said Couey's account of things was jumbled because he was in a drug haze at the time of the crimes. Evidence collected near the grave includes two glass crack-cocaine pipes and three pornographic magazines, according to investigators' statements.
Other sheriff's interviews suggest that Couey's three housemates used alcohol and drugs and may have harbored him from deputies seeking to arrest him on a misdemeanor violation of probation charge shortly after Jessie was reported missing.
Last month, his half sister, Dorothy Marie Dixon, 47; Madie Catherine Secord, 27; and Matthew Oley Dittrich, 31, were charged with misdemeanor obstruction, but prosecutors dropped the charges, saying Florida lacks a law making lying to deputies a crime in their case.
Meanwhile, investigators searching Couey's bedroom say they seized the sleeve from a Shirley Temple videotape, ``Curly Top,'' and several items of bedding or clothing that tested positive for blood or could contain blood samples. The file has no information about the source of the blood.
They unsuccessfully sought a pair of leather gloves authorities say Couey said he wore during the abduction.
On Feb. 23, the night she was last seen alive by her family, Jessie went to church. She was discovered missing by her father the next morning, a day she anticipated taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, documents say.
A door of the family's mobile home was found unlocked.
Prosecutors say sometime during the night of Feb. 23 or early the next morning, Couey slipped into the Lunsford home and snatched the girl, leaving no signs of a struggle and without waking her grandparents, who were sleeping in another part of the house.
At the time, authorities say, he had not reported his move to Jessie's neighborhood. Registered sex offenders are required to report a change of address.
Couey was stopped on a probation violation March 12 in Savannah, Ga., but the warrant did not carry out-of-state arrest authority, so he was released. He was arrested on a revised warrant March 17.
The next day, after he underwent a polygraph test but before he knew the results, he made a statement of guilt, authorities say.
And all you would need is one father on the jury to walk.
My girls are 17 & 13. For them I have remain vigilent and sober. My watchdog is alert and the guns are ready.
To any Freepers prison, please assist in paving the road to hell for child molesters and murderers.
If this piece of filth were to do this to my daughter, I would beg the parole board to release him as quickly as possible.
Because then he would be mine.
It's Floriduh
Need I say more? I expect they will pass some law but the Floriduh Supremes will strike it down.
At the least, they need to fix the stupid law, whatever it is, that says the 3 monsters that hid this POS can't be charged.
That's why I stopped watching horror movies. My own nightmares are plenty, thanks.
Just like the US Senate, the Florida Senate is dominated by RINOs. They wet their frilly little lace panties every time the St. Petersburg Times or the Miami Herald says something mean about them.
Plus, the majority of them absolutely despise Gov. Bush, and do everything they can to thwart and embarrass him. They figure that having these creatures roaming the streets preying at will on kids is plenty embarrassing to the governor, and it gets the media off their backs by giving them an excuse to Bush bash. So apparently the RINOs and the media are quite satisfied with things the way they are - pretty sickening when they sacrifice our kids' lives just to settle their petty little scores.
The law also gives a mandatory life (?) sentence to perverts who go after kids 12 and under.
Doesn't matter though. The ACLU and the media have already decided that even this measure is too harsh and that it'll violate the civil rights of these predators. So one of the senate RINOs on the left's payroll will be tasked with bottling it up in some committee, or else making sure that the only thing that does pass is some watered-down version so full of loopholes and technicalities for the trial lawyers to exploit that it'll actually make things worse than they already are. And then, of course, they'll all blame the failure of the new law on Jeb Bush.
Send the SOB to Saudi Arabia for a parking lot punishment!
Spot on
Don't the means employed for implementing the death penalty by civilized society seem a bit too merciful for such inhuman monsters though? I would think that for 'the punishment to fit the crime' true Justice should require them to experience at least as much suffering as their innocent victims?
Ditto
I'd second that...but only if y'all paint the bullseye on him...lower than usual ;-)...and if y'all use .22s only so he takes a LOT of bullets before being 'used up'!
lock and load! ;-)
"We need an offshore "devil's island" for such criminals where they can be cheaply warehoused for decades. Major drug pushers too."
Maybe Attu or Kiska....or maybe some of the less scenic of the Aleutians.
That argument would be a real puke provoker, for sure.
"He deserves the slow shredder, feet first."
He wouldn't feel a thing, you know the criminal coddling system, would demand that he be fully sedated during his execution.
Reactivate Alcatraz and ship them there for life.
I'd be happy to, but probably not from the POV you'd imagine.
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