MIAMI — A jury recommended Wednesday that a convicted sex offender be executed for raping and killing his 9-year-old neighbor.

The panel took just an hour and 15 minutes to decide that John Evander Couey, 48, should die for his crimes, which were committed nearly two years ago in a small-town trailer community. The same jury convicted Couey last week of first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual battery and burglary.

Jessica Lunsford disappeared from her Homosassa, Fla., bedroom the night of Feb. 23, 2005. Three weeks later, her body was found buried in two plastic garbage bags behind Couey's trailer. Her wrists were bound with speaker wire and she was clutching a stuffed dolphin.

Couey, who did not appear engaged in much of the trial proceedings, did not appear to react to the verdict, but fidgeted in his seat and fingered his tie. (VIDEO)

As Couey hobbled out of the courtroom, his legs shackled, detectives with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office hugged Jessica's father and grandparents.

Story continues

"This is justice for Jessie, but not just for her. I'm sure there are other victims out there," her father, Mark Lunsford, said later to reporters.

"If you crossed paths with Couey, and he hurt you, then this is justice for you," Lunsford added.

But the jury never learned of Couey's prior conviction exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl. Under Florida statute, felonies that are not violent crimes cannot be considered as aggravators for the death penalty.

The jury also did not hear about Couey's alleged confession to killing Jessica, which investigators obtained in violation of Couey's Miranda rights.

Even without the confession, juror Thais Prado said she was easily convinced of Couey's guilt by evidence of Jessica's prints and DNA in his room. In his police statement, Couey told investigators that he kept Jessica in his closet for three days before disposing of her body.

"Those pictures are still very alive in my mind," said Prado, who hugged Mark Lunsford outside the courthouse. "They will be hard to forget, if I ever do." Prado was one of several jurors who had tears in their eyes as they viewed autopsy photos of the girl's badly decomposed body.

The tech support consultant also cited the premeditated nature of the crime as a factor in favor of the death penalty.

The jury's decision, which is an advisory sentence, was 10-2 in favor of death. Circuit Judge Richard Howard will take it into consideration when issuing the sentence, following a hearing to determine if Couey is mentally retarded.

During the two-day penalty phase, Couey's defense attempted to convince the panel that his mental incapacity and childhood traumas merited mercy.

A defense psychologist blamed childhood brain damage, a dysfunctional upbringing and chronic substance abuse for what he diagnosed as Couey's mental illness and retardation.

Three relatives also testified that Couey's mother abandoned him and his sister when they were young and that he never seemed to mature beyond childhood.

Juror Marvin Gunn said that he sympathized with Couey's childhood plight, but was unconvinced that he suffered from mental illness.

"At the end of the day, it's no excuse," said Gunn.

In his closing argument Wednesday afternoon, Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway urged the panel not to consider Couey's childhood, but at the choices he made by abducting and killing Jessica.

"What we become in life is more dependent on the choices we make," Ridgway said. "The choices that John Couey made in his life and with the life of Jessica Lunsford outweigh everything that ever happened to him."

Ridgway also pointed to the horrific nature of the crime in asking jurors to recommend death.

"If this is not the case that calls for the death penalty, what case does?" Ridgway said, as he stood among the bloody mattress and the plastic bags that were introduced into evidence. "If you don't recommend it now, when will you?"