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Video: Special Report | Sheriff’s Reaction
By SAMARA SODOS and JIM TUNSTALL
News Channel 8 & The Tampa Tribune
INVERNESS - Although John Evander Couey told investigators he killed Jessica Lunsford and they captured the chilling confession on tape, a jury will not hear the recording.
A judge in Citrus County decided today that investigators compromised that evidence when they ignored Couey’s repeated requests to talk with an attorney.
“He said no less than eight times in 46 seconds” that he wanted a lawyer, Circuit Ric Judge Howard said, adding detective Gary Atchison and former detective Scott Grace also failed to tell an FBI polygraph expert of Couey’s request.
Howard said there were two possibilities: “They forgot or ... they didn’t want (the agent) to know.”
“The inescapible conclusion is they chose to ignore it,” he said. “Such police misconduct ... is a professional violation of a bedrock of criminal law.”
Physical evidence obtained as a result of Couey’s confession, including the discovery of 9-year-old Lunsford’s body, will be allowed in court.
Judge Ric Howard
The interview in question occurred in Georgia, where Couey was detained. Those statements, the judge said, are off limits.
Couey, 47, was interviewed again in Florida, and those statements will be admissible, the judge said.
Prosecutors say Couey talked also about Jessica Lunsford in the Florida interview.
She 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 February 2005.
Because the ruling admits evidence linking Couey and Lunsford, investigators said it should be enough to convict Couey of first-degree murder, sexual battery of a child under 12 and kidnapping. He faces the death penalty.
Jury selection is expected to start July 10.
Stay with TBO.com for developments.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Chris Chmura in Tampa contributed to this report.
Some of these responses are unreal. The judge is following the letter of the law, and while hard to stomach, that is his duty as an elected official. We still have the confession the defendant made in Florida. You can’t “shoot someone on the spot;” this is not the wild west. We are a world superpower and leader, and we have rules of criminal procedure for a reason.
Charlie, you should check out our judicial system before you go off espousing your ignorance.
Thank God the investigators did what they did. A lawyer would have prevented Couey from telling the police where she was and what he did to her. Her father may have never found her.
This is what is wrong with society, this idiot did unspeakable things to this child and we are worried about his rights! He took away any rights this innocent child had - Take the money you would spend on a trial and spend it on better things! He admitted he did it, whether ot not an attorney was present in my mind does not matter he knows he did it and he should have to pay with his life - along with the people who were there with him and did nothing to protect her.
They still have enough evidence to convict the animal. It’s better the judge make this ruling now vs an appeals court making the same ruling after the trial.
I just hope the evidence they DO have legally will be enough. It’s a shame that all our justice system does is help the criminal’s continue their evil ways. It burns me up to see Couey smirking after listening to the verdict! He deserves death.
I think the judge should use as much common sense when making these rulings as they do legal information. To let this whack job loose would be a crime too. The detectives who did this are just as much to blame, I know the rules and I am no one. No legal back ground, I’ve never even been to traffic court.
Unbelievable police work. What did the cops think when they were tape recording his confession and he keeps asking for an attorney? Did they think that the court would ignore that part of the tape? The prosecutors could lose on appeal (of his conviction if that happens) if the appellate court rules all the subsequent evidence was not admissible due to this blatant mistake.
This SOB needs a death penalty and the cops may have blown it.
I still think they have enough to prosicute. He deserves a fair trial . And the punishment that follows
This is truly amazing. Only in America do we give criminals so many rights! He admitted to what he did. He should have been shot right there.
It is not about defending him or Jessica. It’s about defending everyone else. You know this wasn’t the first time these cops ignored the law. If they ignored Miranda rights for him, how many other people were wrongly convicted when the cops violated their rights? This judge should be praised for actually not succumbing to emotion. Unfortunately, sometimes murderers have to go free before these idiot cops start behaving themselves.
They need to find him guilty and issue an immediate death penalty. Perhaps they should bury him alive? I believe the monsters who kill innocent children should die in the same cruel manner as the child they murdered did. I have NO SYMPATHY for baby killers!!
I think they should just hang him. What he did is unthinkable. Anyone who can do that to a child does not deserve to be able to defend himself. Jessica was not given a chance to defend herself.
It’s a good thing not all the evidence is thrown out. Citrus County better not mess this up and this sick-o will go free on a technicallity.
That is one of the worst rulings I have ever heard. He has to look at himself in the mirror everyday. John Couey has made confessions before and got off, Let’s hope this doesn’t happen ANYMORE
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Posted by Wiliam H. Murphy, Zephyrhills Fl. on 06/30 at 10:04 AM
Again Justice is Blind he addimitted he did it so whay even go to trail? Bad call Judge.