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Uncle sentenced in Sharra Ferger's murder

A plea deal ends the murder investigation of the Pasco 9-year-old. 

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published December 28, 2006

DADE CITY -- Gary Elishi Cochran faced the death penalty in the murder of his 9-year-old niece in 1997.

Prosecutors trying his case faced a nine-year time lapse, the deaths of some witnesses and the uncertainty that comes with any jury trial.

This week, the two sides reached a deal.

Cochran pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of Sharra Ferger in the northeast Pasco community of Blanton on Oct. 3, 1997, and will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.

"This kind of puts some closure to it for the family," assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said. "If they had said 'no, we don’t want to do this,' we probably wouldn’t have."

Cochran's plea punctuates the long investigation of the brown-haired San Antonio Elementary student's death that horrified east Pasco. Sharra, prosecutors said, was lured from her home after taking a bath.

Her body was found a day later, face-down in a field near her Blanton home, north of Dade City. Authorities said she had been stabbed 46 times and suffered deep bite wounds. Thirteen days later, detectives arrested Dale Morris Jr., a neighbor. He sat in jail for four months before being exonerated for a lack of evidence and freed.

The Sheriff's Office kept up its pursuit, and in 2001, Cochran and Gary Steven Cannon, who had lived at Sharra's family's house at times, were indicted for the murder.

A jury convicted Cannon last year, after experts said they found his DNA on hairs found on the victim's body. Because he was 17 at the time of the crime, Cannon could not be executed under the state's death penalty law. He was given a life sentence.

That left Cochran, still facing execution if convicted. Defense attorneys were ready to show that the 41-year-old was mentally retarded, another factor -- like youth -- that exempts defendants from being put to death.

Bartlett said the state was prepared to offer testimony that Cochran was slow but not retarded.

He said the plea simply brings closure to the case.

"As far of the people of Pasco County go, it's nice for them to know the the county will be a safer place," he said.

[Last modified December 28, 2006, 13:04:02]