Couey to Police: "I’ll Apologize to Jessica Lunsford in Heaven"

Tuesday afternoon in Miami, prosecutors rested their case against John Evander Couey, the convicted sex offender charged with abducting 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford from her home, raping her, and killing her by burying her alive. Couey, 48, is accused of sneaking into Jessica’s house one February night in 2005, taking her from her bed and back to his house about 150 yards away, raping her, and then killing her by burying her alive in garbage bags.

Couey, who already had a criminal record as a sex offender, was arrested by police after an exhaustive search for Jessica. During their investigation of Couey, authorities dug up the yard outside Couey’s trailer and found Jessica’s body stuffed into two large garbage bags. Her fingers were poking out of holes in the bags. An autopsy determined that she had died of suffocation.

During the trial, prosecutors called to the stand a number of investigators and jail personnel who testified about conversations they had had with Couey where he repeatedly gave them details about his actions that night. Nathalia Windham, a guard at the Citrus County jail where Couey has been held, told the court that Couey had told her that as the search for Jessica intensified, he was able to convince the girl to get into the garbage bags by telling her that he was planning to take her back home.

Another jail guard, John Read, said that Couey told him he only wanted to break into the Lunsford home to burglarize it, but then when he went into Jessica’s room, he decided to abduct her "on an impulse." Read also said that Couey had described to him how he raped little Jessica. Investigators had already determined that by the blood found on a mattress in Couey’s bedroom.

Read said that Couey had told him he had never intended to kill Jessica, but as increasing numbers of police began canvassing his neighborhood, he "panicked." Read said that Couey told him in detail about convincing Jessica to get into the garbage bags, and then he buried her alive in his yard. "He said he could not bring himself to directly kill her by his own hands," Read said.

The lead investigator in the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, Detective Gary Atchison, testified that Couey had talked with him in detail on October 2005 about the night he savaged and killed Jessica. "He said he had to forgive himself before God could forgive him, and that someday he would see Jessica Lunsford in heaven and he would apologize to her."

Couey’s lawyer called only one witness during the trial, a psychologist who had evaluated Couey. The psychologist told the court that Couey is mentally retarded and has a mental illness that might have been heightened by the isolation of being confined in jail, which might have led him to fabricate tales and make comments to the guards about things he shouldn’t have been discussing.

Closing arguments by prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled for Wednesday, after which the jury will retire to begin deliberations. Couey has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. If convicted, he could be sentenced to the death penalty.