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Verdict: Cannon guilty in death of 9-year-old

The judge immediately hands down a life sentence; co-defendant goes to trial later this year.

By JAMAL THALJI and MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published September 20, 2005

It took a jury just over an hour Tuesday to find Gary Steven Cannon guilty of first-degree murder in the 1997 rape and stabbing death of a 9-year-old Pasco County girl.

Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper sentenced Cannon to life in prison for the death of Sharra Ferger who authorities say was lured from her home during the night, raped and stabbed 46 times.

Cannon, who was 17 at that time of the killing, could not be sentenced to death because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the execution of juveniles. A co-defendant, Gary Elishi Cochran, faces the death penalty, if convicted. During sentencing, Tepper said she wondered where Cannon's family had been the first 17 years of his life "when you were being thrown from pillar to post.

"I know where you're going to spend the rest of your life," she said.

Cannon remained unrepentant, instead complaining that prosecutors had offered favors to former cellmates who testified that Cannon confessed to the killing. As deputies led him away, he asked what was going to happen to the man responsible for the crime - Cochran.

His trial begins later this year, Tepper replied.

[Last modified September 20, 2005, 15:31:43]