The defendant opts not to testify to refute charges that he assaulted and murdered 11-year-old Carlie Brucia.
By Associated Press
Published November 16, 2005
SARASOTA - A litany of evidence points to the guilt of the man charged with kidnapping and killing Carlie Brucia, the prosecution argued in closing arguments Wednesday in the case of the 11-year-old girl whose abduction was caught on a car wash surveillance video.
Jurors have heard taped conversations of Joseph P. Smith, testimony about a jailhouse confession he gave to his brother, DNA evidence linking him to the crimes, the videotape and other proof, prosecutor Craig Schaeffer told jurors.
"All together, all point to Joseph Smith as the person who committed these crimes," he said.
Smith, a 39-year-old former auto mechanic and father of three daughters, is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery. He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he may face the death penalty. He chose not to testify Wednesday.
Before both the prosecution and defense rested their case Wednesday, Smith's defense attorney played a videotape of the defendant's brother asking about reward money in an effort to discredit his previous testimony in which he implicated his sibling in the crime.
Despite objections from prosecutors, defense attorneys played a videotape of the defendant's brother, John, asking an FBI agent during an interview about a reward that had jumped to $50,000 from $25,000 for information leading to the 11-year-old girl. Several hours later, investigators led by John Smith found Carlie's body at a church property.
"I was wondering what the split was?" asked John Smith, who never got any reward money.
Defense attorney Adam Tebrugge had argued out of the presence of jurors that John Smith's testimony on the videotape was inconsistent with his courtroom testimony last week in which he said his brother had asked him to get the reward so a trust fund could be set up for Joseph Smith's children.
Last week, John Smith also testified that during a jailhouse visit in the days after Carlie's Feb. 1, 2004, disappearance, his brother confessed to raping and murdering the girl and told him where to find the body.
Carlie's disappearance attracted worldwide attention because of the car-wash videotape, which showed a tattooed man in a mechanic's uniform grabbing Carlie's arm and leading her off camera.
Circuit Judge Andrew Owens also allowed Tebrugge to show a silent video of detectives interviewing Ron Choquette, who lived in the house where Carlie spent the night before she disappeared. During the seven-day trial, the defense has tried to shift suspicion on Choquette, although detectives ruled him out as a suspect since he didn't have tattoos on his forearms and his alibi checked out. Choquette had been subpoenaed as a defense witness but couldn't be located.
"This is simply offered so a jury can get a look at Mr. Choquette to see what he looked like in February 2004," Tebrugge said.
Defense attorneys, on their first day of calling witnesses, tried to offer alternatives as to who kidnapped and killed Carlie. The defense called as a witness a Florida Highway Patrol trooper who testified that on the night Carlie disappeared he had stopped to question a motorist who had pulled over on Interstate 75 near where Carlie's body eventually was found. The trooper left after the motorist told him he only was checking a tire.
The defense also called two tree-service workers who testified that hours before Carlie's body was found at the church property, they saw a man coming out of woods behind the church and then hurriedly taking off in his vehicle. They saw a fresh pile of tree branches in the area where the man had come from, they testified.
