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Separate trials set in young girl's 1997 killing

Originally, the two defendants were to be tried together. But a recent Supreme Court ruling precludes that.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published May 18, 2005

DADE CITY - Gary Steven Cannon won't face the death penalty if convicted in the 1997 murder of 9-year-old Sharra Ferger, and because of that he won't be tried alongside co-defendant Gary Elishi Cochran.

The long-delayed double-trial was split in two by mutual agreement between the prosecution and defense Tuesday morning in Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper's courtroom.

"We all agreed it had to be severed," said Assistant State Attorney Phil Van Allen.

It's a development that has been inevitable since the U.S. Supreme Court's March decision sparing juveniles from the death penalty.

Cannon turned 17 just 30 days before he and the girl's uncle, Cochran, are accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Ferger on Oct. 3, 1997. Ferger was found face-down in a field near her Blanton home. Authorities said she had been stabbed 46 times and suffered deep bite wounds.

In June 2001, Cochran, now 39, and Cannon, now 24, were indicted. Both pleaded not guilty, and both have told the Times they had no involvement in the murder.

Tuesday's agreement meant the trials were pushed back from the original June 6 date to September.

The victim's mother, Karen Ferger Patti, said she was dreading that June trial. Eight years after her daughter's murder, she said she still struggles with severe depression.

"I was getting more depressed because the piece of paper I got was a subpoena for June 6," she said. "My doctor does not recommend that I go because it would not be good for my health."

The mother also said she still has to be deposed before the trials.

Two weeks have been set aside for each trial, the first scheduled Sept. 12 for Cannon, the second Sept. 26 for Cochran.

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, the state said it would announce what it would do with the death bill filed against Cannon. Tuesday, Van Allen said the State Attorney's Office decided there's nothing it has to do.

"The U.S. Supreme Court did it for us," he said.

Cannon's defense attorney, Daniel Hernandez, argued in a May 6 motion that it would be "fundamentally unfair" to try the two together because Cochran faces the death penalty, while Cannon doesn't.

Capital cases are tried before juries vetted for a possible death penalty phase, while Cannon can be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison.

Hernandez also argued that the two defendants defense strategies may be "antagonistic."

[Last modified May 18, 2005, 00:50:19]