Detective: Sex offender said he'd apologize in heaven
POSTED: 5:53 p.m. EST, March 7, 2007


MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A convicted sex offender on trial in the abduction
and slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford told authorities that he hoped
to
meet her in heaven and apologize, a detective testified Tuesday.

Detective Gary Atchison, the lead investigator in the case, said defendant
John Evander Couey talked with him about the slaying.

"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," said Atchison of the Citrus County Sheriff's Office about the
conversation in October 2005.

Couey, 48, is accused of sneaking into the Lunsford home -- about 150
yards
from his home -- in February 2005, and abducting Jessica, then raping her
and killing her by burying her alive.

Couey, with a record as a sex offender, was arrested during an extensive
search for Jessica. Her body, encased in two large garbage bags and with
two
fingers poking out, was unearthed outside Couey's trailer. An autopsy
showed
she suffocated.

Jailers and investigators testified Tuesday that Couey repeatedly
volunteered details about the slaying.

Citrus County jail guard John Read said Couey told him that he didn't
intend
to kill Jessica but "panicked" as police swarmed their rural neighborhood.
Read said Couey told him how he put the girl into trash bags and buried
her
alive in his yard.

"He said he could not bring himself to directly kill her by his own
hands,"
Read said.

Read said Couey told him that he intended to burglarize the Lunsford home
and took Jessica "on an impulse." Read said Couey also described how he
sexually assaulted her, a statement backed up by blood found on a mattress
in Couey's room.

Jail guard Nathalia Windham said Couey told her he got Jessica to climb
into
the bags by telling her he was taking her back home as the search
intensified.

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday afternoon.

The defense ended after calling only one witness, a psychologist who said
Couey suffers from mental retardation and mental illness that could have
been intensified by isolation in jail, leading him to make ill-advised
comments to guards.

Jurors are likely to begin deliberations on Wednesday after closing
arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys. Couey has pleaded not
guilty and could be sentenced to death if convicted.

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