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Jury selection off to slow start

Half of the 40 potential jurors who appeared in court Monday were sent home. More potential jurors will appear today.

By JOHN FRANK
Published July 11, 2006

TAVARES — All but a handful of prospective Lake County jurors knew something about the death of Jessica Lunsford, although few could recall the details that led to the arrest of John Couey.

Half of the 40 people who appeared in court for the first day of jury selection Monday were sent home because they knew too much about the case or said jury service would be an economic hardship.

In the end, 10 men and 10 women remained as possible jurors. Jury selection continues this morning.
Couey is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing the 9-year-old Homosassa girl last year. He has pleaded not guilty. The state is seeking the death penalty.

Satellite TV trucks and television cameras filled the courthouse parking lot in Lake County. Even more news media are expected when opening statements begin in Inverness later this week.

The proceedings got off to a slow start. “Painstakingly so,” said prosecutor Ric Ridgway.
Circuit Judge Ric Howard came to Lake County to find an impartial jury after concluding that pretrial publicity tainted the jury pool in Citrus.

Along with the duty notice sent to prospective jurors, the judge included a letter asking people not to read newspapers or watch TV news in the month leading up to the trial. Not all honored the request.

Many were quickly dismissed after they said they heard about the judge throwing out Couey’s confession because investigators didn’t honor his request for a lawyer.

“I guess a confession was made and there was a problem with this confession,” said a male University of Florida pharmacy student who was sent home.

The word “confession” was never mentioned in the courtroom, but assistant public defender Daniel Lewan asked probing questions about potential jurors’ knowledge of any statements Couey made to police or how investigators found Jessica’s body.

In the voided confession, Couey told detectives they could find Jessica buried behind his mobile home around the corner from the Lunsford residence.

It wasn’t the only issue that disqualified jurors. A handful said they just couldn’t be impartial, regardless of the facts.
A female administrative assistant with a 7-year-old daughter burst into tears soon after the judge read the charges against Couey.

“The worst part is hearing the things that happened and putting my daughter in that situation,” she said between sobs. “If anything ever happened to her I would die.”

Even some of the 20 prospective jurors who advanced to the second round of questioning, scheduled for later this week, had strong feelings about the case.

One female sales associate said she knew “that he pretty much killed a little girl,” but was allowed to remain in the jury pool after she said she could set aside her preconceived notions and fairly weigh the facts.

Court officials went to great lengths to find an unbiased jury, not only by moving jury selection two counties away, but also by banning newspapers in the jury waiting room and masking nearby newspaper boxes with tape.

But in this small town near Orlando, it’s hard not to know about the big story at the downtown courthouse.

On lunch break, a handful of prospective jurors went to Beef O’Bradys sports bar for takeout sandwiches and chips. There they saw MSNBC news reports that mentioned the Couey confession along the bottom of the screen.

Two jurors who saw that news report made it to the next stage because they were unaware of statements made by Couey.

Questioning continues today, and attorneys on both sides hope to cover more ground. They are a third of the way toward narrowing the jury pool to about 60 people. On Wednesday, they plan to pick from that group a 12-member panel and four alternates.

The proceedings didn’t begin in earnest until 1:30 p.m. It took a while for the judge to prequalify jurors. Before the questions began, 60  were dismissed for statutory reasons, such as being a convicted felon, a primary caretaker or older than 70.

Howard also started the morning by hearing arguments about motions to limit testimony.

At prosecutors’ request, he ruled that testimony about the finances of the Jessica Lunsford Foundation and pornographic images found on the computer of Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford, were not relevant to the case.

He also banned statements about Couey’s previous criminal troubles and comments made by Citrus Sheriff Jeff Dawsy that Couey was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident.

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or (352) 860-7312.

[Last modified July 10, 2006, 22:21:34]