One potential juror threatened in Couey jury selection

Tavares, Florida — One potential juror was threatened in John Couey's murder trial. The judge in the trial of the man accused of killing Jessica Lunsford has stopped jury selection because he says an impartial panel can't be found in the area.

John Couey's taped confession and other details of the case have received widespread media coverage. The judge threw out the confession before the trial because investigators ignored Couey's requests to speak to an attorney during questioning.

Attorneys spent three days this week weeding out potential jurors who had been exposed to news reports about the case. Circuit Judge Ric Howard had moved jury selection to Tavares in Lake County because of pervasive publicity in Citrus County, where the alleged crimes occurred and where the nine-year-old girl's body was found.

But the judge decided today that the case has to be moved farther from Citrus County. He has not said from where they will sequester the jury.

Sources tell us at least one poetential juror was threatened in regards to this case. The exact content of that threat is not known...But that coupled with pretrial publicity and some scheduling conflicts for a couple of defense witnesses pushed the judge to postpone the case.