Sara Dorsey's Couey Court Blog for Tuesday, July 11

By: Sara Dorsey

8:28 am -- Good Morning! We are waiting for court to start today. My eyes won?t stay open because I made a pot of coffee in my hotel room and walked out without it! But who needs coffee when you are listening to exciting jury selection!

It is day two of this process. Yesterday, the judge interviewed 40 people, keeping 20 and cutting 20. Today the court spokesperson says about 185 people should show up. Prosecutors say 60 is the magic number to move onto the next round of in-depth questioning. So of the 185 people, we need 40 to be allowed to stay. Then tomorrow, those that were kept on will come back to be requisitioned together. Prosecutors say those questions will be general?one example?what are your feelings on the death penalty.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed that Thursday will be the magic day and then we will have to see if the judge chooses to go with opening arguments in Citrus County on Friday or if he will hold off until Monday.

Tavares is a cute little town. I have not taken the grand tour, but we are staying at the Best Western across from a beautiful new hospital. There is an Applebees, Dunkin Donuts, CVS, plus a few family-owned restaurants!! I?m dying to get an ice cream cone from this place that looks like a giant cone with a mound of vanilla on top! I lick my lips every time I drive by.

I had gator tail the first night I arrived at a little sports bar? it was tasty. Last night I had a small steak, which was phenomenal. We finally left the courthouse at 8:30 last night, so probably anything would have tasted good.

I?m still holding out hope someone is going to deliver a coffee. The coffee, jury selection saga continues!

8:50 -- Couey is in court wearing the same gray suit as yesterday.

8:54 -- Judge is here now. He is telling the media to not use potential jurors' faces or names.

8:59 -- The defense just said he thinks there is a lot of media exposure in Lake County too, and asked for another change of venue. That was denied by the judge.

9:01 -- Thirty prospective jurors in the first group are being brought into the courtroom. They will be questioned individually, just like yesterday. The focus is still hardship issues that could present themselves to a sequestered juror and pre-trial publicity, including: what these potential jurors know about this case, John Couey, Jessica Lunsford, and what evidence law enforcement had.  

9:12 -- First juror is on the stand and by 9:14 he is released and told to go. His biggest concern was not being paid by his job for the three weeks this trial is expected to last. The court is excusing people who would face extreme financial hardships.

9:15 -- Second juror is up. The judge is asking if she has formed any definite and fixed opinions on the case.  She remembers Couey's confession. The defense never loves to hear that, since jurors will never hear the confession. She was quickly released.

9:16 -- Potential number three is on the stand. We are 0 for 2 right now. Let's see how this one goes. This woman, a customer service rep, says she knows nothing about this case.  This woman was away at college last year when Jessica was killed. She says her college in Pensacola, didn't allow televisions, so she only knows this is a high profile case. I'm gonna bet this one will be a keeper.

1:59 pm -- We're just waiting for court to start again...It broke an hour ago for lunch. Ok so I've been getting some questions about John Couey wearing headphones in this proceeding.

Here's the deal, when attorneys go to sidebar to talk to the judge all microphones are turned off so the conversations are private. Couey has a right to hear what is happening, but he can't just get up and walk there because he's shackled under the table. Instead, he puts on the headphones and then he can hear what the judge and the attorneys are discussing. I hope that clears up things for all of you. At this point, Citrus County tells us they hope to wrap jury selection up by Wednesday. If that happens, opening statements would begin on Thursday morning in Citrus County.

2:30 -- Apparently, during the lunch break, three potential jurors overheard a conversation that a member of the media was having on a cell phone with a speaker phone. That person was allegedly talking about what the jury would and would not get to hear in the trial. One of the jurors told the bailiff. Once lunch was over, the judge called those three jurors in to talk about what they heard. All of it happened in a public area, because jurors are just milling around while they wait during breaks.

The judge has restricted the media to stay away from far end of the public area by a jury pool room. The judge said he doesn't want anyone to sabotage this selection process, even if it is unintentional. I can tell you, yesterday, we were trying to interview potential jurors who had been dismissed and will not be chosen for trial, and my photographer said one that was still in the pool, who will be coming back for more questioning on Wednesday, was sitting outside directly across from where the media is reporting from.