Prosecutor: DNA Ties Man To Girl's Murder

Blood found on a mattress links a man to the 2005 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive, a state prosecutor told jurors Thursday as the death penalty trial opened.

DNA from blood and fingerprints also link John Evander Couey to the crime, prosecutor Ric Ridgway said in his opening statement.

The bloodied mattress was in Couey's room in a trailer about 150 yards from the Lunsford home. The girl's fingerprints were found on a glass tabletop and on cardboard in a closet in the trailer, Ridgway said.

Couey, a 48-year-old prior sex offender, is accused of sneaking into the Lunsford home, abducting the girl, raping her and later killing her by burying her in garbage bags while she was still alive. Two of the girl's fingers poked through the plastic, and she was clutching a stuffed animal.

The case was moved to Miami from Citrus County in central Florida because of intense media coverage. It still took more than two weeks to seat a jury in Miami, where many people said they remembered the girl's disappearance and news about a massive search to find her.

Couey attorney Daniel Lewan urged jurors to be skeptical of the testimony and control their emotions. He asked how Jessica could be kidnapped silently from a house where her grandparents and their dog, Corky, were also asleep.

Couey's confession to police was thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present. Ridgway said Couey still revealed many details about the crime to jail guards, who are expected to testify.

Testimony opened with Jessica's grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, saying that she heard nothing the night Jessica disappeared until Mark Lunsford came to her room and told her the girl was missing.

[inspire411]

I am so sick and tired of about hearing about the rape and torture of our innocent children by these prior offenders...and the no mind liberals who set them free after their first offense.

STRING THESE PATHETIC FREAKS UP, CUT OFF THEIR n&%s, AND SENTENCE THEM TO DEATH !!!!!!!!!!!!

[amr034]

I am sick of hearing about people raping children or anyone for that matter. Especially since this problem has an easy fix. If our officials who make laws would step up and say enough is enough that we aren't going to tolerate this behavior anymore NO EXCUSES no more insanity pleas, abused as a child or whatever they claim. If you rape a child or anyone for that matter you will be EXECUTED no if's and's or but's!! These people know what they are doing is wrong otherwise they wouldn't be hiding it. Start excuting them and they will be few and far between eventually if the children of this country are lucky and someone passes a law that protects them like animals in this country are protected there won't be as many *** offenders. Then no need for the *** offender registry because if they commit a *** crime you can easily find them in their grave.

[bm6005]

Either death by lethal injection or by hanging make no difference.

No way. It needs to be painful and take a long time!

[foranc]

shouldn't be given the death sentence so he can be studied by scientists? ANYBODY WHO DOESN'T GET THE DEATH SENTENCE IS EVENTUALLY RELEASED!!! Do you want this monster to live next door to you and kill your child? What the !@#$%&* are you thinking about!!!???

[polipersona]

Sorry about the grammatical errors in that last message, I was typing too fast to realize the mistakes.

[polipersona]

i believe that if this man is found guilty, which he probably will be due to the DNA evidence, he should NOT be given the death penalty. What he did was a horrible thing that only a monster who was somehow messed up could do this. I am not excusing his actions for any resaon, but I believe that we (meaning scientists) should study the minds, lives, and habits of these criminals to try to paint a picture of what possibly made them to what they did. If we just kill off everybody who commits a violent crime, then we lose the chance to educate ourselves about these people and our chance to find out who these people might be and how to help them BEFORE they commit a tragedy.

[cantfindnam1]

I wonder how Coueys lawyer is going to explain Jessica's body being found buried in the yard outside of the house where his client was living. I just wish they had also charged the members of that animals family who covered for him when the police showed up at the trailer. From what I've heard, Jessica was still alive, in that trailer, when the police knocked on the door. Even IF that animals family didn't know she was there, they knew he was there and that he was a *** offender. They are just as guilty as he is.

[psolis4]

It pisses me off how this *** offender is allowed easy access to children. To live in our society with just a slap on the hand... What is wrong with this world???