Fla. prosecutor urges jury to convict defendant in slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of a sex offender accused of kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford from her Florida home and burying her alive in trash bags.

In closing arguments Wednesday morning, the prosecutor urged them to convict John Evander Couey, saying overwhelming physical evidence and Couey's own admissions told the story of Jessica's death.

"She had a constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness," prosecutor Peter Magrino said. "That defendant right there took away her constitutional rights when he murdered her."

Defense attorney Daniel Lewan, in his closing, sought to shift the focus to the case's unanswered questions: How was Jessica was taken silently from her home? Why were other fingerprints found in Couey's room not analyzed?

He suggested police were driven by media and community pressure to solve the case and focused on Couey.

"Don't be afraid to disregard what you don't trust," Lewan said. "Use your logic and common sense."

Couey, 48, who has a record as a sex offender, was arrested in March 2005 in Georgia during the search for Jessica, who disappeared on Feb. 23, 2005, from her bedroom about 150 yards from the trailer where Couey had been living.

Evidence presented at trial included DNA from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his bedroom, as well as Jessica's fingerprints in a closet where she was allegedly hidden. Jail guards and investigators testified that Couey repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest, insisting that he hadn't meant to kill the third-grader but panicked as police searched for her.

Jessica's body was found in a shallow hole, encased in two black plastic trash bags. She died of suffocation and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.

The medical examiner, Dr. Steven Cogswell, testified during the trial that he found injuries consistent with sexual assault. He concluded the little girl suffocated after being buried alive, and said that she had managing to poke two fingers through the plastic bags before she died.

Couey admitted to investigators shortly after his arrest that he committed the crime, but the confession was thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present as he had requested.

Couey was charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery on a child, kidnapping and burglary.

If convicted, jurors would then recommend whether he should be sentenced to death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole. Citrus County Circuit Judge Richard Howard will ultimately decide the sentence and is not required to follow the jury's recommendation, but judges often do.

Jessica's killing prompted Florida and a number of other states to pass new laws cracking down on sex offenders and improve tracking of them, including a new Justice Department database. Authorities had not known that Couey was living near the Lunsford home even though he was required to tell them he had moved.