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Couey's defense team challenges new trial site

His lawyers say Miami-Dade County isn't enough like Citrus County demographically.

By JOHN FRANK
Published November 1, 2006

INVERNESS - The defense attorneys for John Couey, the convicted sex offender charged in the 2005 death of Jessica Lunsford, are challenging a judge's order to move the trial to Miami-Dade County, new court records show.

Public Defender Daniel Lewan argues that the South Florida venue selected in September clearly violates a state law requiring judges to place priority on choosing an area that resembles the original county's demographics.

Lewan is asking Circuit Judge Ric Howard to pick a location more akin to Citrus County, citing in part material from a St. Petersburg Times article that shows the disparities between where the crime was committed and the culturally diverse Miami area.

The original trial was moved from the courthouse in Citrus County to Lake County, in the same 5th Judicial Circuit. Three and a half days into the July trial, Howard determined that finding an unbiased panel would be impossible because intense media coverage tainted the jury pool.

The recent 86-page filing by the defense also includes transcripts of two secret court hearings held in July and September that shed light on how Miami was picked and how the judge and attorneys plotted about the best ways to keep the public from finding out about the trial's new date and location.

The documents also reveal for the first time that Couey made an incriminating statement to investigators shortly after his arrest in March 2005.

Couey's original confession to the kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica was tossed out by the judge earlier this year because Couey was not given an attorney after repeatedly asking for one.

Knowledge of that widely reported confession by many potential jurors caused the mistrial in Lake County.

Ric Ridgway, the chief assistant state attorney prosecuting the case, said Tuesday that Couey made the newly revealed remarks shortly after his arrest in March 2005 when talking to investigators from the Orlando Police Department about an unrelated case.

Ridgway would not release a transcript of Couey's statement because it is exempt from public records laws, even though prosecutors publicized his first confession soon after the arrest.

If the new comment is allowed, it would be the second incriminating statement the defense would have to fend off. Couey made incriminating statements to a jail guard months after his arrest and initial interrogation.

Right now, the trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 12 in Miami-Dade. But that wasn't where the judge was leaning at first.

Howard said during a secret July 20 hearing that he wanted a highly populated area and favored Jacksonville. But at the second closed-door hearing on Sept. 11, Howard had his mind made up on Miami and he overruled a defense objection based on the difference in demographics.

The judge said Jacksonville and other areas he considered didn't have the room to accommodate the trial. At the hearing, Lewan suggested Indian River, Leon, Martin and Monroe counties, saying Howard was "ignoring state law and I think it's improper."

Lewan did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Ridgway said Tuesday he doesn't believe the defense's complaint has a chance.

"They are not going to win, I don't think," he said. "The judge has so much discretion ... and this is where he wants it to be."

Legal observers like John Trevena, a Largo defense lawyer, also questioned the defense's motives. He thinks the Miami location would produce a jury more favorable to the defense because of its large minority population.

"I can't imagine where they would find a better pool," he said. "Obviously they have a very weak case. It may seem to be they are grasping at any straw to lay a record for a future appeal."

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

[Last modified November 1, 2006, 06:40:58]