Friday, March 2, 2007
Day 2
Another day in the trial of John Couey has started off on a strange note. One of the jurors, the newlywed, told the court today that at the hotel the jury has been staying in one of the workers came up to her, saying "he did it, he did it". She was asked if she could still be a fair juror, and she said she would have to wait and see what happened in the court, and expressed how mad it made her. The judge asked that the management be instructed to tell the workers at the hotel not to talk to the jurors. The comment was made in spanish, and another juror had been standing near the womyn when the statement was made, but the judge didn't think he needed to be interviewed. The defense filed for a mistrial in light of the information of the encounter, and the judge denied the motion.
Detective Cannaday, did a lot of the work in the case, inside the Lunsford home, and inside Couey's home, was the first person on the stand. He will have a lot to talk about since he was the one who found her hand print on the wall of Couey's closet, he was one of the people who helped uncover her body, and he was there at her autopsy. In the court room today is the bed, that was taken from Couey's room, the bed on which was found Jessica's blood and Couey's semen. While prosecution witness, and the prosecution are talking about the mattress, Mark Lunsford stares at the blood, which is his daughters and Couey goes on colouring. The defense asks that the mattress be excluded from evidence for an alleged broken chain of custody, but the judge over-rules the motion and the jury gets their first look at it. The prosecutor also opens a number of bags with pillows stained with blood in them, one of which has a bio-hazard tag on it.
The relationship between Prosecutor Magrino and Defense Attorney Lewan seems to be very strained today. They have argued over a number of topics today, from evidence submitted to the way evidence was submitted. Lewan has had a number of objections during the day, at a number of points objecting to the line of questioning for a witness and at one point Lewan claimed Magrino was too close to the jury. While the two lawyers do not talk to each other directly, but to the court or to the judge, tensions could get hot.
The next witness is a detective Holder that assisted in the uncovering of Jessica's body. While the jury will not hear the confession that lead officers to the body, they can talk about how they uncovered it. They started searching near the back door of Couey's trailer after nightfall and worked for several hours taking out small amounts of dirt at a time to preserve any evidence that might be in the ground. After several hours of digging, they found the two plastic bags with Jessica inside. The prosecution showed a picture to the defense, and then to the jury, it is the sad picture taken of the bags in the ground with Jessica's fingers sticking out. Many of the jurors reacted to the picture, even one that has gained a reputation for falling asleep.
The jurors are then shown a picture of Jessica at the coroners with her hands tied with the speaker wire. The defense had tried to block the jury from seeing this picture by the judge over-ruled. A photo of Jessica's body is viewed, with a coat placed over a camera to prevent the picture from being shown, she deserves that much respect. Then it is back to minor things, like finger prints and shoe prints. They are next shown the bags that she was buried in, and the prosecution asks the detective on the stand to explain what a couple small holes in the bag are from. The detective says it is from Jessica's fingers.
The prosecutions last witness for the day is takes the stand, a detective Spiddle that was there for the discovery of Jessica's body. He tells about how she was folding into the bags, like a tootsie roll. He also tells the court that after Jessica disappeared that for a short time, her father was a suspect, and that they might have checked out some of the sites he had worked at. He worked as a truck driver, and sometimes hauled dirt, so they may have checked out any sites where he had dumped dirt.
Later a video of the Couey trailer is shown, and it must not be a blockbuster hit because the aforementioned juror who has a habit of falling asleep, nods off over and over during. It doesn't help I am sure, that the court room is silent and there is no sound on the video. The video was shot by Det. Spiddle the day that Jessica was found, it shows the ground covered with leaves, and a shovel police believe Couey used to bury Jessica.
At the end of the day, a lot of evidence has been brought out for the jury, there is the mattress, the dolphin, the shovels police believe Couey used and lots of pictures. Pictures of Jessica in the ground, pictures of her with her hands tied with the speaker wire and pictures of her autopsy. A reporter for TBO.com who viewed the autopsy photos said they were sad, that other reporters that were viewing them were dabbing their eyes.
Detective Cannaday, did a lot of the work in the case, inside the Lunsford home, and inside Couey's home, was the first person on the stand. He will have a lot to talk about since he was the one who found her hand print on the wall of Couey's closet, he was one of the people who helped uncover her body, and he was there at her autopsy. In the court room today is the bed, that was taken from Couey's room, the bed on which was found Jessica's blood and Couey's semen. While prosecution witness, and the prosecution are talking about the mattress, Mark Lunsford stares at the blood, which is his daughters and Couey goes on colouring. The defense asks that the mattress be excluded from evidence for an alleged broken chain of custody, but the judge over-rules the motion and the jury gets their first look at it. The prosecutor also opens a number of bags with pillows stained with blood in them, one of which has a bio-hazard tag on it.
The relationship between Prosecutor Magrino and Defense Attorney Lewan seems to be very strained today. They have argued over a number of topics today, from evidence submitted to the way evidence was submitted. Lewan has had a number of objections during the day, at a number of points objecting to the line of questioning for a witness and at one point Lewan claimed Magrino was too close to the jury. While the two lawyers do not talk to each other directly, but to the court or to the judge, tensions could get hot.
The next witness is a detective Holder that assisted in the uncovering of Jessica's body. While the jury will not hear the confession that lead officers to the body, they can talk about how they uncovered it. They started searching near the back door of Couey's trailer after nightfall and worked for several hours taking out small amounts of dirt at a time to preserve any evidence that might be in the ground. After several hours of digging, they found the two plastic bags with Jessica inside. The prosecution showed a picture to the defense, and then to the jury, it is the sad picture taken of the bags in the ground with Jessica's fingers sticking out. Many of the jurors reacted to the picture, even one that has gained a reputation for falling asleep.
The jurors are then shown a picture of Jessica at the coroners with her hands tied with the speaker wire. The defense had tried to block the jury from seeing this picture by the judge over-ruled. A photo of Jessica's body is viewed, with a coat placed over a camera to prevent the picture from being shown, she deserves that much respect. Then it is back to minor things, like finger prints and shoe prints. They are next shown the bags that she was buried in, and the prosecution asks the detective on the stand to explain what a couple small holes in the bag are from. The detective says it is from Jessica's fingers.
The prosecutions last witness for the day is takes the stand, a detective Spiddle that was there for the discovery of Jessica's body. He tells about how she was folding into the bags, like a tootsie roll. He also tells the court that after Jessica disappeared that for a short time, her father was a suspect, and that they might have checked out some of the sites he had worked at. He worked as a truck driver, and sometimes hauled dirt, so they may have checked out any sites where he had dumped dirt.
Later a video of the Couey trailer is shown, and it must not be a blockbuster hit because the aforementioned juror who has a habit of falling asleep, nods off over and over during. It doesn't help I am sure, that the court room is silent and there is no sound on the video. The video was shot by Det. Spiddle the day that Jessica was found, it shows the ground covered with leaves, and a shovel police believe Couey used to bury Jessica.
At the end of the day, a lot of evidence has been brought out for the jury, there is the mattress, the dolphin, the shovels police believe Couey used and lots of pictures. Pictures of Jessica in the ground, pictures of her with her hands tied with the speaker wire and pictures of her autopsy. A reporter for TBO.com who viewed the autopsy photos said they were sad, that other reporters that were viewing them were dabbing their eyes.
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