SARASOTA, Fla. — The defense lawyer for an auto mechanic charged with the rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia stunned trial participants and observers Wednesday by declining to deliver a closing argument.

"Your honor, opposing counsel, members of the jury ... We waive closing argument," Assistant Public Defender Adam Tebrugge announced, after meeting briefly in private with the defendant.

The surprise move came when prosecutors finished the first half of what was expected to be a two-hour final presentation. It preempted prosecutor Debra Johnes Riva from getting in the last word.

Making his first public statement since the trial began Nov. 7, Tebrugge told reporters on the steps of the courthouse that the move was not unusual.

Story continues

advertisement

"We believe we have made every single point during the trial that we hoped would come out. Therefore, we did not believe closing argument would serve any further purpose in the case," Tebrugge said. "It is an unusual strategy; however, I have done this before in other cases."

Tebrugge's closing argument was much anticipated, and many in the courtroom thought they would finally learn where the defense was trying to lead the jury.

Tebrugge was expected to argue, as he suggested during the trial, that police zeroed in on Joseph Smith as a suspect early and never strayed far from their theory that he was the killer.

Tebrugge suggested through his questions that John Smith could have contributed the semen found on Carlie's shirt; he also noted that other people resembled the security-camera images of a man approaching Carlie in the parking lot of Evie's Car Wash.

Jurors were told to return to court at 9:30 a.m. Thursday for final instructions on the law and the start of deliberations.

Prosecutor Craig Schaeffer showed jurors a shoe belonging to the defendant.

Before the defense delivered its surprise decision, prosecutor Craig Schaeffer delivered a dispassionate closing argument in which he detailed methodically the evidence against Smith.

A "mountain of evidence" — video, audio DNA and more — links Smith, 39, to the abduction and death of Carlie last year, Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer focused the jury's attention on a coded letter Smith sent to his brother from jail. Among other things, Joseph Smith told John Smith, a key prosecution witness, that he dragged the body to where it was found and discarded Carlie's clothes and backpack in four Dumpsters.

"Those are the words of that man, Joseph Smith, that he wrote to his brother ... telling about what he did to the belongings of Carlie Brucia, and what he did to Carlie Brucia's body," Schaeffer said. "Those are the inescapable words of the defendant."

In the middle of Schaeffer's argument, Carlie's mother, Susan Schorpen, fled the courtroom in tears.

Susan Schorpen, mother of Carlie Brucia, fled the courtroom in tears during the prosecutor's closing argument.

Urging jurors to find Smith guilty of first-degree murder, sexual battery of a child and kidnapping, Schaeffer highlighted statements that Smith made to his brother about having "rough sex" with Carlie. He reminded jurors about witness after witness who said that Smith resembled the man in the mechanic's uniform caught on video grabbing Carlie by her arm.

"In this case, there is truly overwhelming evidence. There are mountains of evidence in this case," Schaeffer said.

"How do we know it is Joseph Smith in that 12-second clip? People who knew him for years — his friends, his family — identified him ... How do we know this man murdered Carlie Brucia? He told us."

If jurors find Smith guilty of first-degree murder, the same panel would return Nov. 28 to hear evidence in the penalty phase of the trial. To have Smith sentenced to death, prosecutors would have to convince jurors that the number of aggravating factors — things like the age of the victim and how she died — that outweighed any mitigating factors that Smith might raise.

The trial is being broadcast by Court TV and is being streamed on the Web by Court TV Extra.

Return to full Carlie Brucia coverage