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.