7:07 p.m.

Three of the jurors on the John Couey trial just finished talking to reporters.

Two of the people, Thais Prado and Marvin Gunn, were jurors who voted. The third man, Osvaldo Pradere, was an alternate.

The group met Mark Lunsford before speaking to reporters. Prado, 20, cried after hugging the man who she’d sat across from for nearly three weeks, staring at his sullen, pained face.

Prado also spent a lot of time looking over at Couey during the proceedings. She said she tried to reconcile the horror of the testimony with the tiny man sitting at the defense table, coloring.

None of the jurors wanted to discuss specific votes, or too much about the deliberations. But Prado said that some of the jurors seemed to buy into the argument that Couey is retarded.

The deliberations were careful and methodical, Prado and Gunn said. When someone suggested that the hour and 10 minutes it took jurors to return a recommendation of death for Couey was quick, Gunn replied, “It didn’t seem quick.”

The pair said they felt prosecutors had an overwhelming amount of evidence, and the DNA and fingerprints and other items shown were too strong to ignore.

Gunn said he entered deliberations during the guilt phase not knowing Couey at all. He said he wished he would have heard more about Couey’s background during the first phase. It might not have changed his vote, but it would have been good information to have.

Prado said in Spanish that she felt the verdict was significant for the community. She said she believed it would prevent more deaths like the one Jessie had to endure.

The group clearly bonded over the experience. They played Pictionary. The first night, the group watched the gory horror flick, Saw. Gunn said.

He said reconciling the movie’s violence with the real violence recounted in the courtroom made him realize that many people were numb to gore and death. “We’re desensitized to it,” he said.

All three said the experience of serving on the Couey case was a life-changing experience.

Pradere, the alternate, said he would see his children in a new light.

“I will definitely hold them closer,” he said.

Prado, for one, said the images of Jessica on a medical examiner’s table would stick with her for a very long time.

“These are pictures are very alive in my mind,” she said, moments after shedding tears with Lunsford. “Those are going to be very hard to forgot.

“If I ever do.”

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