Tampa, Florida - New depositions were taken in February from employees of Corrections Corporation of America, the company that staffs the Citrus County Detention facility. All claim they had contact with John Couey or knowledge of someone else who had contact with him since he arrived at the jail.Guard Rhonnda Kaufman-Price said, ldquo;hellip;He says he writes like a children's book. You know, he draws. And I have seen some of his drawings. And they are like little, kind of like biblical, you know, kid drawings, things like that.rdquo; When further prompted about the children's book Kaufman-Price says, ldquo;The only thing he said to me is that he was thinking about writing a children's book, you know, like a Bible, children's. Kaufman-Price added Couey was always reading the Bible and scriptures. She says he told her he had asked for forgiveness and that in jail he talked to God and prayed a lot.A second guard, Kristi Lake, said Couey liked to draw flowers and cartoon characters adding, ldquo;Then he started doingmdash;not really landscapes butmdash;actually stuff more like that looked like a child's drawings.rdquo; Lake said Couey drew a picture of, ldquo;Just one pretty blond girl reading a book. The sunshine, you know like on a hillside.rdquo; Lake said Couey used colored pencils and drawing paper and always watched the news. She said one day the television was up loud and Couey was talking and she heard him say, ldquo;I didn't mean to do it.rdquo; Lake went on to say Couey said, ldquo;I didn't mean to do it but I was really high at the time. I was really high at the time.rdquo; Lake says she didn't ask Couey what he meant by that. Lake also recalls Couey frequently studying the Bible in his cell. Lake says if she was making coffee she'd offer it to Couey. The murder defendant apparently didn't go out for recreation and only left his cell to take a shower or come to court, according to Lake.Frank Fritz, a fifteen year employee, says he played cards and checkers with Couey. Fritz said Couey would talk about the Bible adding, ldquo;He started making a, like a children's book with poems and verses from the Bible in it. Fritz says Couey drew birds, butterflies, pictures of trees and water. The guard says Couey read cowboy and western novels and got the newspaper daily.Christine Touchton, a former Crystal River police officer and Corrections Corporation of America employee, came forward after her dad told her about conversations he had had with John Couey. Both Touchton's husband and father work at the jail and her own child was only a day older than Jessica Lunsford. Touchton says she began to encourage her father to tell authorities about the conversations, but he didn't think it was necessary. Touchton says after Couey's confession was thrown out she contacted the State Attorney's Office to report what she knew. Touchton, explaining why she came forward, said, ldquo;I was doing this to make sure he didn't do this to any other girl and Jessica wasn't a freebie.rdquo; Touchton says her father told her Couey said he had originally gone into the Lunsford house to burglarize it but then decided to take Jessica. She said her father went on to say that Couey talked about sexually assaulting the young girl and there was bleeding. Touchton said her father told her Couey said he used bleach to try to wash away evidence and that he kept Jessica in the closet and fed her pizza. Touchton went on to say other guards were talking about things Couey had said. Her dad told her another guard said Couey told him when he when he went to bury Jessica she was arching up, trying to push the dirt away and her dad recalled the guard saying Couey had said he stomped her down with his foot.Heather Halstead recalled Couey asking to watch Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, American Idol, CSI and football. She said Couey would get copies of Sudoku puzzles to pass the time. Halstead said on one occasion after a news story about Couey's cases aired he said, ldquo;I feel sorry for what I did but I can't take it back now. Halstead said Couey told her too about the children's book with pictures he was working on that would have little blurbs like, ldquo;let's go to church.rdquo; Halstead said the other character would say, ldquo;Yeah, it will be fun.rdquo;Officer James Brown recalls Couey asking another guard if he would have to pay a higher price for the things he had done. These guards came to light in January. On Tuesday Judge Richard Howard will decide if the jury will hear any of this testimony./>
