Joseph P Smith: The Trial

Killer of 11-year-old apologizes, begs judge for mercy

By MITCH STACY

Associated Press Writer

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A weeping Joseph Smith apologized Tuesday for the abduction, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia two years ago, telling a judge he had taken large amounts of cocaine and heroin that day trying to kill himself.

Smith told Circuit Judge Andrew Owens, who will sentence Smith to death or life in prison, that "I do not ask for mercy for myself. The only thing I can see to give me a life sentence is for the sake of my family. I do not want to see my children hurt any further."

Carlie's February 2004 abduction drew nationwide attention because it was caught by a car wash surveillance camera and subsequently aired on TV. Smith, 39, was convicted in November. Friends and even Smith's brother said they recognized him on the video as the burly man in a mechanic's uniform grabbing the young girl's wrist as she walked home from a friend's house on Feb. 1, 2004.

Jurors recommended by a 10-2 vote that Smith be executed. Owens, under Florida law, must give "great weight" to the jury's recommendation when he sentences Smith on March 15.

Smith told Owens he had been a heroin addict since he was 19 and had unsuccessfully tried to quit several times. He said his wife had kicked him out of their home in January 2004 and he had lost his job. He said he took drugs trying to overdose and doesn't recall much of what happened the night he abducted Carlie.

"I lost my business, my family and my self-control," he said, as his mother, Patricia Davis, also wept in the courtroom gallery. "My world was really coming apart fast."

However, he said, "I take responsibility of my crimes. I don't understand how this could have happened.

"Every day I think about what I did and ask God for his forgiveness."

But prosecutor Debra Johnes Riva said Smith was lucid enough after the crime to stash Carlie's body and get rid of her clothes and backpack. And days later he told his brother where he had put the body.

"He has an absolute, complete memory of the crime," Riva said.

Riva dismissed arguments by defense attorney Adam Tebrugge that Smith was depressed and in the throes of a raging drug addiction for which he had previously sought help, and could lead a productive life in prison and be a positive influence on his three daughters if he is spared.

None of that, she said, "outweighs the horrible crimes that were committed against Carlie Brucia."

"The bottom line here is that we're talking about the death of an 11-year-old child," Riva said, asking the judge to consider the fear Carlie must have felt as she was being raped and strangled by Smith.

Carlie's stepfather, Steven Kansler, also wasn't moved.

"It didn't mean anything to me," Kansler said afterward. "It doesn't change my feelings one bit. I don't care what he says. It doesn't bring Carlie back. I'll be happy when I see him die."

Tebrugge had implored Owens to spare Smith, saying that he had sought help for his drug addiction but never received it.

"You aren't going to find an individual with a more documented history of both mental illness and substance abuse than Mr. Smith," he told Owens.

Tebrugge also suggested that the community would better heal if Smith was given life in prison and forgotten, rather than sentenced to death and subject to years of appeals before he is executed.

On Monday, Riva read a letter from Carlie's mother, Susan Schorpen, who could not appear because she is jailed in Pinellas County on drug and prostitution charges. Schorpen said the pain of losing her daughter led her to institutionalize herself three times and take drugs to numb the pain.

Last modified: February 14. 2006 12:39PM

I myself think that Carlie's Mom should stop laying the blame for all her bad habits on Joseph Smith.
She was into drugs and such long before he came along.
From what has been written, it seems Carlie's home life was not at all a happy one.

AnnEz 14th Feb 2006

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