SARASOTA, Fla., March 12, 2004
Carlie Suspect Pleads Innocent
Judge Refuses To Dismiss Charges Against Fla. Murder Suspect
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Play CBS Video Video Abduction On Camera Police in Sarasota have issued an Amber Alert for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, whose apparent abduction was caught on camera. Her parents discuss it on The Early Show.
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Carlie Brucia, seen with presumed abductor in video from car wash surveillance camera. (CBS)
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Suspect Joseph P. Smith (AP)
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Photo Essay Carlie Brucia Case An abduction of an 11-year-old girl ends in death and heartbreak.
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Interactive Out Of Sight: Missing Kids Get the facts on kidnappings, learn predator profiles and check out resources for locating missing children.
The abduction of Carlie Brucia was captured by a car wash security camera.
An attorney for Joseph Smith on Friday entered innocent pleas to charges of first-degree murder, rape and kidnapping.
Smith wasn't there. He had waived his right to appear at court hearings.
His public defender asked for the case to be dismissed — saying grand jurors who indicted him may have been tainted by the intense media coverage.
But a prosecutor said the defense offered no proof of that.
Carlie Brucia was abducted as she walked home from a friend's home. A car wash surveillance camera captured images of the girl being led away by a dark-haired man Sarasota County Sheriff's detectives say is Smith.
Smith, the married father of three young daughters who has a long history of drug offenses, was once acquitted of trying to kidnap a Bradenton woman in 1997. He is being held without bond.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty against Smith.
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