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Carlie Brucia case judge fears pressure on jurors

He expects to bar media identification or images of the panel during Joseph Smith's death penalty trial.

SARASOTA - A judge said Thursday he wants to protect the identities of jurors who will hear next month's trial of the man charged with kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia.

Circuit Judge Andrew Owens said he wants to keep the media from publishing the names or showing images of jurors in Joseph P. Smith's trial for fear they will subject to "intimidation in the community" from people who feel strongly one way or the other about the death penalty the prosecution is seeking.

"When they go to the grocery store on the weekend, people are going to be walking up to them," Owens said. "It's going to be very difficult for the jurors if people know who they are."

Attorneys for Tampa Bay area media said they oppose the order, and suggested it might be illegal for the judge to order the media not to photograph jurors outside the courthouse.

Prospective jurors' names will not be made public, said Owens, who will give media attorneys time to offer written arguments before issuing a final order.

Smith is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery in the slaying of Carlie, whose abduction on Feb. 1, 2004 was recorded by a car wash surveillance camera and beamed worldwide on television news.

Also Thursday, Smith's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Adam Tebrugge, continued to attack a confession authorities say Smith gave to his brother and mother during a jail visit four days after Carlie's disappearance. Tebrugge claims John Smith extracted the information from his brother at the behest of FBI agents, after Joseph Smith had invoked his right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning.

Tebrugge said the information Joseph Smith gave his brother should not be used at trial.

FBI agent Leo Martinez testified Thursday that John Smith and his mother, Patricia Davis, visited Joseph Smith in jail on the morning of Feb. 5, 2004 with the blessing of his attorneys. Joseph Smith told them he killed Carlie and left her body on the grounds of a Sarasota church.

After John Smith and his mother searched without success for Carlie's body at the Central Church of Christ, John Smith called the agents that night and told them he would take them to the body, Martinez said.

At the church, Joseph Smith called his brother's cell phone with information about where authorities could find the body, the agent testified.

Tebrugge argued that John Smith held a grudge against his brother because of a previous incident and cooperated with the FBI behind attorneys' backs to get him in trouble.

But prosecutor Debra Johnes Riva said FBI agents did not initiate the contact with John Smith nor ask him to extract information from his brother. "To punish law enforcement when they absolutely honored the defendant's rights would be an injustice," Riva told Owens.

The judge did not say when he would rule on the motion.

Jury selection in the case begins Oct. 24, with the trial set to begin Nov. 7.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 01:40:20]