  
| 
| ||||||||||||||||||
Surveillance video to be Exhibit A at Florida murder trialTrial begins Monday in highly publicized caseBy John Springer Disturbing surveillance camera images of Carlie Brucia's abduction riveted television news audiences last February. The girl's body was found five days later. That footage now is Exhibit A for prosecutors hoping to send the 11-year-old girl's accused killer to Florida's death row. Joseph Smith, a 39-year-old mechanic with a history of drug abuse and scrapes with the law, goes on trial Monday for the abduction, rape and strangulation of Carlie, whose body was dumped on the grounds of a Sarasota church. If convicted of the most serious charge, first-degree murder, Smith faces death by lethal injection or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Police were on Smith's trail quickly after investigators triggered an Amber Alert on February 1, 2004. They released surveillance camera images showing a man dressed in dark coveralls approaching Carlie outside a car wash located midway between her home and the home of a friend she had been visiting. The images are of poor quality and the camera does not record sound, but the exchange between Carlie and her abductor are chilling nonetheless. After stopping briefly to speak to Carlie, the man grabs the girl by her arm and drags her off-camera. "It was apparent that [Carlie] did not recognize this subject and ... attempted to pass by him when he stopped her and forcibly walked her out of camera view," police wrote in an affidavit outlining the probable cause to arrest Smith on February 6. When prosecutors begin presenting evidence at Smith's trial, jurors will learn about the many telephone tips police received soon after the video was aired, first on local TV, then nationally. Callers told police that the man looked, dressed and walked like Joseph Smith, a Sarasota-area mechanic. Police interviewed Smith and determined that he was not telling the truth about his movements on the day of the abduction. Among other things, a vehicle he borrowed from a friend was captured by cameras outside of Evie's Car Wash moments before Carlie was abducted. Smith was held on drug charges and a probation violation, but police were unable to get him to make any incriminating statements or clear up the mystery of what happened to Carlie Brucia. As the national media set up camp in Sarasota, police turned to Smith's mother and brother for help. Smith was not talking, but investigators hoped for help from Patricia Davis and John Smith. According to published accounts of pretrial hearings held last month, Patricia Davis urged her son to "come clean," and Joseph Smith eventually called John Smith and told him where to find the sixth-grader's body. An FBI agent was listening in. Sarasota County Court Judge Andrew Owens Jr. has yet to rule on motions by Joseph Smith's public defender to keep the surveillance video and incriminating statements Smith made to relatives out of the trial. Assistant Public Defender Adam Tebrugge argued that the FBI recruited John Smith to act as an agent of the police after Joseph Smith invoked his right to remain silent and to have an attorney present when questioned. An FBI agent, however, testified that Smith believed Carlie might still be alive and wanted to help investigators find her. "[John Smith] felt like she could be someplace in a hotel or someplace and [Joseph Smith] might tell him where she was," FBI Agent David Street testified. Testimony in the guilt phase of Smith's trial is expected to last about two weeks. If convicted of first-degree murder, the same jury of eight women and four men will reconvene in late November to determine a penalty. 
|
| ||||||||||||||||||
| © 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
 |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
