Events In The Jessica Lunsford Disappearance & Couey Trial

Published: Feb 10, 2007

2005

February 24 - Jessica Marie "Jessie" Lunsford is discovered missing by her father Mark. The girl had been tucked into bed by her grandparents the night before.

February 25 - While searchers comb the area around Jessie's Citrus County home, a body found in Lake Thonotosassa in Hillsborough County initially feared to be Jessie's turns out to be that of a local woman.

February 26 - Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton and his wife offer a $25,000 reward for information regarding Jessie's disappearance.

March 3 - The organized search for Jessie ends without producing significant leads.

March 4 - Jessie's family is disturbed by the release of decades-old arrest records relating to her grandfather by Citrus County authorities. Archie Lunsford's arrests were in the 1950s and involved charges of attempted rape, pre-kidnapping, and assault and battery.

March 15 - Citrus County Sherriff Jeff Dawsy announces that authorities are seeking a person of interest, later identified as John Evander Couey. Couey is a convicted sex offender who was living in the area near Jessie's home.

March 17 - John Couey is arrested in Augusta, Ga. on two warrants charging him with violation of probation and failing to tell probation officials he was leaving the state of Florida.

March 18 - Couey confesses to abducting and murdering Jessie. His criminal history reveals a previous sex crime involving a 5-year-old girl in Kissimmee.

March 19 - Jessie's body is found buried 150 yards from her bedroom, behind Couey's home.

March 20 - Couey is initially charged with failing to tell probation officials he moved out of state - a felony for sex offenders - and violation of probation for a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

March 21 - Couey is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery on a child under 12, kidnapping and burglary with battery in the disappearance and suffocation of Jessie.

March 22 - Couey is denied bail.

March 25 & 26 -- Jessie is buried, and 1,000 people attend her memorial service.

March 29 - Couey pleads guilty to two unrelated drug charges that violated his probation and receives one year in jail on each count.

April 1 - A grand jury returns an indictment of Couey on all charges.

April 19 & 20 - Evidence released to the defense reveals the nature of Jessie's death, and a coroner's report states that she suffocated.

May 11 - Circuit Judge Ric Howard states that a fair trial in Citrus or other counties within the circuit is not out of the question.

June 23 - Newly released documents include Couey's account of the abduction and death of Jessie. Couey is quoted as saying "I sexually assaulted her," and "She was alive. I buried her alive … it's stupid, but she, she suffered."

July 21 - Couey's trial is set for February 6, 2006.

September 15 - Circuit Judge Ric Howard refuses a defense request to step down. Assistant Public Defender Dan Lewan argued that Howard is biased against his client because the judge set a tentative trial date which Lewan thinks is too early.

October 13 - Circuit Judge Ric Howard grants a later trial date of July 10, 2006.

2006

March 30 - Transcripts reveal that on March 5, Couey admitted to a jail guard that he raped and killed Jessie.

April 21 - Circuit Judge Ric Howard grants a defense motion that likely will move Couey's trial.

June 5 - Judge Howard rules that Couey will be tried in the same county where he is charged and that jurors will be brought from another county rather than move the trial. He also denied a request by Assistant Public Defender Lewan to bar the news media from pretrial hearings.

June 30 - A judge rules that Couey's statement in which he initially confessed to the crimes will not be allowed at trial. However, prosecutors successfully argued that the evidence retrieved because of that statement is admissible. Also, jurors will be able to hear two later statements made by Couey to Detective Gary Atchison and to a Citrus County jail guard.

July 10 - Jury selection begins in Lake County. Before jury selection opens, the judge rules that jurors won't hear about Couey's drug arrests or registered sex offender status.

July 13 - Judge Howard abruptly stops jury selection and agrees to move it - and possibly the trial - outside the 5th Judicial Circuit. The decision came after Assistant Public Defender Lewan asked for the trial to be moved because pretrial publicity crushed any chance for an impartial jury.

September 12 - Court officials announce that Couey's trial jury will be selected in Miami-Dade beginning tentatively on February 12, 2007.

November 8 - Judge Howard denies a defense motion to again move the trial saying that he hopes to seat and sequester a jury in Miami and try the case there.

2007

February 12 - Trial Begins in Miami

Compiled by Tribune researchers Buddy Jaudon and Catherine Hammer