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JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – Inmate John Evander Couey, who was on death row for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005, has died at a Florida hospital, officials said on Wednesday. He was 51 years old. Couey passed away at 11.15 a.m. local time at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, where he was transported to on August 12. Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said Couey died of natural causes. Couey abducted 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, a native of Gastonia, from her bedroom in 2005 before he raped and burried her. If Couey's body is not...

A convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes Wednesday in Florida. John Evander Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital where he had been since Aug. 12, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

John Evander Couey, convicted child rapist and murderer has died, depriving Florida and the family of Jessica Lunsford of seeing Couey's death sentence carried out. Mark Lunsford, the victim's father once said of Couey, that he wouldn't mind if Couey died at the hands of another inmate, saying “I would be buying a lot of cigarettes for someone.” Looks like Mr. Lunsford won't have to buy those cigarettes after all. Couey died of cancer today in prison.

You cannot have it both ways! Every year in America, this “both ways” mentality gets worse and worse. Somewhere along the line Americans started thinking that we could have all of our rights and freedoms and have expedient justice and results at the same time. Well, I have to tell you: YOU CANNOT. There is a blend of the two that must be championed if we are going to continue being a successful country. The mortgage crisis of late is one of the great disasters caused by this “have it both ways” mentality. The government was constantly pressured by citizens...

A Florida judge sentenced John Evander Couey to death Friday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Couey, a convicted sex offender, buried Lunsford alive in two black trash bags with her hands bound and her favorite purple stuffed dolphin tucked in her arms, Circuit Judge Richard Howard said. Lunsford's body was found in a grave in Couey's yard about three weeks after she disappeared. "He secured her fate with a second bag," Howard told the court. Howard called the murder "cold and calculated," causing a "slow, suffering and conscious death." Couey, appearing in a red jumpsuit...

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We've some exploding True Crime this week. The lovely John Couey got the death penalty and NY cops indicted for the bridegroom shooting. I've got a couple of stories about female teachers and adolescent loves. One story is so tragic and illustrates very well a very unintended consequence of what we might laugh off as a young boy's lustful dream. A lovely Dad stabs and tosses his baby out the window and a missing Georgia boy found. Were his relatives hiding his crime like Couey's relatives hid Jessica?

A psychologist cast doubt Wednesday on defense claims that the man convicted of killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford is mentally retarded, rating John Evander Couey as average in ability to hold jobs and get through daily life. The testimony by prosecution expert Harry McClaren is important as a jury weighs whether to recommend a life prison sentence or the death penalty for Couey. McClaren's remarks suggest that Couey is able to adapt adequately despite any mental challenges, including low IQ. Mentally retarded people cannot be executed under both Florida law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But a key factor...

MIAMI — A jury found a sex offender guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl and burying her alive in a crime that led to a crackdown around the country on sex offenders.

Jury will hear accused killer's jailhouse confessions about Jessica Lunsford's murder Corrections Officer John Read testified Tuesday that murder defendant John Couey talked about the crime while in jail. By Emanuella Grinberg Court TV MIAMI — A judge on Tuesday refused to suppress jailhouse statements from a man who allegedly expressed remorse for raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005. Circuit Court Judge Richard Howard halted jury selection Tuesday in John Couey's capital murder trial to hold a hearing on whether to suppress the statements that the convicted sex offender allegedly made in 2006. After hearing testimony from two...

INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) — The trial of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and burying alive a 9-year-old girl will begin next month as planned, a judge ruled Wednesday. John Evander Couey's attorneys wanted his scheduled Feb. 12 trial for the March 2005 slaying of Jessica Lunsford delayed so they can have more time to question new witnesses for the prosecution. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Circuit Judge Ric Howard appointed a third attorney to Couey's defense team to help interview the new witnesses, jail guards who allegedly heard Couey make incriminating statements. Couey has pleaded not guilty to...

TAVARES, Florida — The judge in the murder trial of a man accused of killing Jessica Lunsford has stopped jury selection because he says an impartial panel can't be found in the area. John Couey's taped confession and other details of the case have received widespread media coverage. The judge threw out the confession before the trial because investigators ignored Couey's requests to speak to an attorney during questioning. Attorneys spent three days this week weeding out potential jurors who had been exposed to news reports about the case. Circuit Judge Ric Howard had moved jury selection to Tavares in...

The confession of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford isn't admissible in court, but the discovery of her body can be used as evidence, a judge ruled today. John Evander Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn't given the opportunity to do so. Jessica Marie Lunsford was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in March 2005. Two days earlier,...

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A sex offender accused of kidnapping and murdering a 9-year-old girl said she was alive inside his home when authorities came to investigate her disappearance earlier this year, according to court documents released Thursday. John Couey, 46, said he fed Jessica Lunsford for two or three days in a closet in a Homosassa mobile home where he was staying before burying her alive in February. During that time, authorities visited the home but never searched it, Couey said. "They didn't search," Couey said in a March interview with detectives that was included in the documents. "They...

TALLAHASSEE - As the parents of two murdered girls looked on, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law today to provide longer and harsher sentences for sex offenders, including the death sentence for some and lifetime electronic satellite monitoring for others on probation. The act was passed by the Legislature at the time the grisly details of 9-year-old Jessica's death were made public, and about the same time that 13-year-old Sarah Lunde was killed. Both girls lived in the greater Tampa Bay area and were killed by sex offenders in unrelated cases. ''Their daughters did not deserve...

TALLAHASSEE — State law enforcement officials said Thursday they alerted the Citrus County Sheriff's Office six months ago of potentially missing sexual offenders, including the man charged this month with abducting and murdering Jessica Lunsford. But officials at the sheriff's office said Friday they could not verify whether they ever received the letter. It required them to verify the addresses of 58 sexual predators or offenders in the county who had possibly violated their sexual offender registration requirements. If the system had worked correctly, John Couey might have been arrested in November and could have been behind bars at the...

A time to kill Doug Giles April 23, 2005 Ecclesiastes states, “There is an appointed time for everything … a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing,” and among other things, … there is, “a time to kill.” Guess what time I think it is for John Evander Couey and David Onstott? With our nation’s attention rightly riveted on the macabre murders of little Jessica Lundsford and Sarah Lunde, I think I just heard the clock strike Death:30 for the irretrievable duo who carried out these sickening slayings....

Sex offender John Couey. Rumors are flying that Couey took Jessica Lunsford into his trailor through his bedroom window. All this happened in the pouring rain. This sounds like a pro to me. Has this man done this before? Is someone looking into the areas he lived before to see if anyone was missing?