Originally Posted - March 7, 2007

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MIAMI---A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old girl Jessica Lunsford (left) by burying her alive in two black plastic trash bags.

Following four hours of deliberations Wednesday, a jury found that John Evander Couey (right in photo above), 48, had killed the child after he snatched her from her bedroom in 2005 about 150 yards from a trailer where Couey was living. She was suffocated and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.

The jury will remain sequestered through the penalty phase, which begins Tuesday, when they will recommend if Couey should be sentenced to death.

Couey had admitted to investigators after his arrest that he had committed the crime but the confession was inadmissible at trial because although he had requested a lawyer, police questioned him without him having legal counsel.

DNA evidence from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen from a mattress in his bedroom was presented at trial. In addition, her fingerprints were found in a closet in Couey's trailer.

Corrections officers and investigators testified during the trial that Couey had admitted killing the child but said he didn't mean to kill her.

As a result of Jessica's murder, many states, including New York and Florida, enacted new laws relating to the registration of sex offenders and tracking of them through databases and satellite tracking devices.

New York's Jessica's Law provides for up to life sentences for the most heinous sex crimes, those where the perpetrator harmed the victim, threatened the use of a weapon, committed the crime against multiple victims or was previously convicted of a felony sex crime. Adults convicted of serious sex crimes in which the victim is under the age of 13 could spend the rest of their lives in prison, regardless of any other aggravating circumstance.
3-07-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette