After a graphic account of Sharra Ferger's death, her mother talks of the last time she saw her.
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published September 15, 2005
DADE CITY - Lured out of her home on a school night, she was stripped naked below the waist.
Hysterical, clad only in her favorite T-ball shirt, she cried in the dark.
Then her attackers took turns raping the 9-year-old girl, and one viciously bit her shoulder.
To silence her, they used a knife and maybe an ice pick or screwdriver. There were 46 stab wounds, nine to the head. She was scratched and beaten.
After giving jurors that graphic account of Sharra Ferger's death eight years ago, Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson then pointed to the accused, Gary Steven Cannon.
Cannon did more than just take part in the sexual assault and murder of a child, the prosecutor said.
He enjoyed it.
"Cannon (told a witness) the sexual act he commited on the little girl would gratify him for a long time," Hellickson said.
Jurors sat stoically through opening statements, through the state's gruesome depiction of the crime, through the sight of the body on the TV monitor and the testimony of the victim's mother, Karen Ferger Patti, in a graphic day of the Cannon trial.
In Wednesday's opening statements, Hellickson described the state's time line and evidence against Cannon, 25, who faces life in prison.
Cannon and the victim's uncle, 39-year-old Gary Elishi Cochran, were indicted on first-degree murder charges in 2001. Cochran, who faces the death penalty, goes on trial in December.
The state's evidence: hair found on the victim that the state says matches Cannon's DNA, the bite mark matched to Cochran and jailhouse informers who say they heard both confess.
What alibi did Cannon give the state? He was home that Thursday, watching the Green Bay Packers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"He said he was home watching the game," Hellickson said, "but of course the game was on Sunday, not Thursday."
The defense's opening statement dredged up another name forever linked to the Ferger case: Dale Morris Jr.
Sharra's body was found Oct. 3, 1997. The Dade City man was arrested 13 days later. Investigators said then that the bite mark left on Sharra matched Morris' dental impressions. But DNA evidence did not link Morris to the crime, and he was freed months later.
Hellickson recounted the false arrest in the state's opening, a story that in turn became the centerpiece of the defense's strategy.
Using a baseball analogy, attorney Daniel Hernandez told jurors the Pasco Sheriff's Office got it wrong then.
It got it wrong now too.
"When it comes to a homicide investigation, batting 1-for-3 is not a very good average," Hernandez said. "It is an embarrassing average."
As Morris' name was once again linked to the Ferger case, the exonerated man's ex-wife, Sandi Christy, cried silently in the courtroom.
Why did she come to the trial?
"For Dale," she said, "and for Sharra, to see justice done." Morris died earlier this year.
Hernandez laid out the defense's case: the crime scene wasn't properly preserved, neither was the body. The hairs the state said were recovered from Sharra's body could have come from the Ferger home itself, a messy place where Cannon once slept on Sharra's favorite sofa, with the blanket she always used.
And the array of witnesses, many of whom were in jail with Cannon and who will testify against him?
"I believe the evidence will show that these statements attributed to Mr. Cannon are false," the lawyer said. "They will be provided to you by people who aren't credible."
Then the defense told jurors that the state was now compounding the tragedy of Morris' false arrest.
"It's a tremendous tragedy for Sharra Ferger, it is a tremendous tragedy for her parents, it's a tremendous tragedy for her family," Hernandez said. "I believe the evidence will also show you it is a tremendous tragedy for Dale Morris and his loved ones.
"And I suggest to you ladies and gentlemen, upon consideration of all the evidence in this case this will be considered a tragedy for Mr. Cannon, because he is not guilty."
The state spent most of the day discussing the collection and preservation of evidence, questioning deputies, crime scene technicians and forensic pathologists. The defense tried to insert doubt at each turn.
At day's end, Karen Ferger Patti took the stand.
It was the day the mother said she always feared, that left her hearing voices again.
Now remarried, she lives in Buffalo, N.Y., where she still undergoes mental, substance and grief counseling. She spoke softly and calmly.
She was the last witness to see Sharra alive between 10:45 and 11 p.m., before leaving for her late shift. She said she cleaned her home daily. The state attacked the defense's theory that the fibers could have come from Cannon's visit two months before the slaying.
After Sharra showered, her mother said, she dressed Sharra in clean clothes, including the green T-shirt she was found in the next day.
"Do you recognize this photo?" Hellickson said.
"That's my daughter," Patti said.
"And she's wearing her favorite T-ball shirt?"
"Yes," she said.
"Is that the same shirt she was wearing when you last saw her alive?"
