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Cellmate retells story of girl's rape, killing

Testimony describes Gary Steven Cannon's horrific jailhouse talk, as his attorneys try in vain to have a mistrial declared.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published September 16, 2005

DADE CITY - He was creepy. There was a stigma to him. No one in jail liked him.

Randy Kernan said he stuck up for Gary Steven Cannon anyway. They were cellmates sharing a Pasco County jail pod, later friends.

And what Cannon told him, Kernan testified Thursday in court, shocked and disgusted him.

Over and over again in 1999, Kernan said, Cannon shared explicit, ugly details about the rape and stabbing death of 9-year-old Sharra Ferger two years earlier.

"(He said) the sex he had with her that evening would last him a lifetime," Kernan said.

The witness could barely control his emotions. He bickered with prosecution and defense alike. His eyes teared up. His voice rose in anger. It seemed, at times, as though he were baiting Cannon.

His testimony sent Sandi Christy, the widow of Dale Morris Jr., the man once accused in the Ferger case, running out of court, crying.

Cannon, being tried on a charge of first-degree murder, buried his head at the defense table.

Jurors edged forward in their seats.

The defendant shared graphic details of the predawn hours of Oct. 3, 1997, Kernan said, describing the victim's anatomy, the exchange of fluids, how he used a condom, even how it ended, with the girl begging for her life before she was slain.

"Did Mr. Cannon talk to you about what happened during the course of that murder?" Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson said.

"Our conversations progressed to the point where Mr. Cannon discussed with me the fact that he and (co-defendant) Gary (Cochran) were out using drugs, partying, they came across this young girl," Kernan said. "His opinion was that she shouldn't have been there anyway . . . he said this wouldn't have happened if (her family) were taking care of her."

Kernan used the same lewd, vulgar language he said Cannon used in recounting the crime, then faced the defendant: "I'm sure he remembers that."

Cannon, 25, and Cochran, 39, are accused of luring Sharra out of her Blanton home, sexually assaulting her in a nearby field, then fatally stabbing her. Cannon faces life in prison. Cochran faces death and goes to trial in December.

The state says Cannon's DNA was found on hairs taken from the body. Kernan said Cannon used a condom because he was worried only about semen.

"Well, he didn't feel they did have evidence," Kernan said. "He felt the only way they were going to tie this to him . . . he made comments about cleaning up his mess . . . but he had a concern for his (co-defendant).

"He thought his guy was stupid, inept and was going to be his downfall," Kernan said.

Then the prosecutor asked about Sharra's death.

"The reason she was stabbed in the head was because she was pleading with (them) to stop," Kernan said, ". . . and then he described how when she was stabbed her body flopped up in the air.

"He didn't show any emotion. He was talking about it like you and I would talk about a football game.

"He seems to be showing a little emotion now."

Cannon's mother, Edna Jenkins, once described Kernan as "totally rehearsed."

Kernan said he has never been rewarded for aiding authorities. He came to court in a dark suit, white shirt and red tie, the only non-law enforcement or expert witness dressed so well. He served two years in prison and has been out since 2001.

"I don't even get mileage money for driving out here," Kernan said.

Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand tried to hammer Kernan on his criminal record. He has served state prison time for aggravated assault and driving with a suspended license. Kernan didn't deny it but quarrelled over the specifics of his criminal record.

The prosecution and defense also sparred over other witnesses' testimony about the blood-stained yellow shirt Cannon wore, the missing knife lent to him, the acquaintance's car he disappeared with the night of Sharra's death, and why that Thursday night, Oct. 2, he could not have watched the Green Bay Packers play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The game was Sunday, Oct. 5, according to state's exhibit No. 28: the Packers' 1997 schedule.

Then there was the defense's demand for a mistrial. Attorneys thought investigators had violated Cannon's Fifth Amendment protections from self-incrimination during a 1999 interview, talking to him after he refused to go to the Pasco Sheriff's Office to answer questions.

But he did so while riding with investigators of his own free will, the judge ruled, talking freely with them.

"In essence there is no violation of the right to remain silent," Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper ruled.

[Last modified September 16, 2005, 01:36:17]