Known Incest Freak Buries Young Girl Alive In Front of Cops
Jessica Marie Lunsford also known as Jesse was born in Gastonia North Carolina on October 6th 1995 she was the fourth child of Mark Lunsford and the first child of Angela Bryant Mark had been previously married and had three children from that marriage we found a source saying that Mark had custody of some of those children after the divorce however we do not see them mentioned throughout the story of Jesse’s childhood so it’s unclear if she was the only child in her home Jesse’s parents were married at the time
of her birth but they had already had a hard go of things her mother had suffered over half a dozen miscarriages before doctors discovered that she had an RH incompatibility she got vaccinated for RH incompatibility which is currently standard practice in most places in the US for birthing parents with the negative blood type after getting vaccinated she went on to have a healthy pregnancy with Jesse however by the time Jesse’s first birthday rolled around the couple were already Calling it Quits according to Mark Angelo wanted out he
hired a lawyer and got full custody of his daughter something that didn’t happen very often in the 9s Angela went on to Remar and start a new family in Ohio and mark embarked on a journey as a single parent with only a 10th grade education Mark was doing his best to provide for his family and be the best father he could be in Jesse’s younger years he worked at a wood waste processing plant in North Carolina he brought Jess to work with him where she learned to drive large machines at a very young age she spent her days
playing in piles of wood chips and watching her father work hard after a few years Mark’s parents moved to Florida to retire and Mark saw an opportunity to be close to his family for both himself and his daughter he moved to Florida where his parents Archie and Ruth were living and their lives became intertwined on a regular basis they all lived in the same trailer on Sonata Avenue in homasa Florida Jesse spent lot of time with her grandparents as Mark was working as a dump truck driver and often worked very long shifts
while she was growing up in Florida Jesse was a happy and vibrant child she loved to sing and had big plans often unable to decide if she should be a doctor a fashion designer or an Olympic swimmer when she grew up she was active within her Church community and was always smiling on the weekends mark would take Jesse out to eat and sing karaoke her favorite artists to sing along with were pink and Shia Twain in the fall of 2004 Jesse started the third grade and turned 9 years old shortly after February 23rd 2005 was just a
regular day for Jesse she went to school ran errands with her grandparents and went to a church function with her family friend Shannon Armstrong her youth group was preparing for a competition where children would recite verses after the youth group meeting Jesse and Shannon spent more time together as Shannon often tutor Jesse that night they were working on sign language Shannon dropped Jesse off at her home
around 9 9 p.m. and watched until she walked through the door the last thing Jesse did before walking into her house was turn back to Shannon and sign I love you Mark had not returned home from work when Jesse arrived home he was just finishing up a 15-hour shift at work and made it home 15 to 30 minutes after Jesse he relaxed on the couch watching TV while Jesse jumped on the couch next to him he left again shortly before 10: p.m.
to go spend the night at his girlfriend’s house with her clothes picked out for the next day and her treasured purple doll and stuffed animal Jesse got ready for bed Ruth tucked Jesse in at 10:00 just as she did every night and headed to bed herself just 65 yards away from where Jesse was falling asleep in her bed another family was still Wide Awake John kuie was staying with his sister and her boyfriend in their shared trailer also in the trailer was Jon’s niece her husband and their 2-year-old son Jon’s niece was in the middle of a very
highrisk pregnancy and spent most of her time on the couch or in bed John was 49 at the time of our story and had endured horrific violence from a very young age he was born prematurely to a 16-year-old mother named Irene who had no interest in caring for him John’s father Johnny W kuie was referred to as a violent alcoholic Irene gave birth shortly after Jon’s father pushed her from a moving vehicle family and friends would later recall that his mother never attempted to support his head when he was a newborn when corrected by by
people around her she would simply laugh about the way his head was Ling around she also didn’t feed him properly often giving him bottles of sugar water instead of milk or formula John and his sister Dorothy live with their mother and stepfather Bobby Lindsay until John was about five or 6 years old for the entire time Jon was the target of extreme violence at the hands of his stepfather and his body was constantly covered in fresh bruises when John was about 3 years old there was an occasion where he wed his bed when Bobby
found out he tied him up John’s mother found him and untied him but Bobby retaliated by slamming Jon’s head in the door repeatedly experts think this could have caused permanent brain damage on another occasion when John went the bed Bobby hung him from the door handle by his pajamas when he finally let him down he threw him in the air letting his small body slammed to the floor he then kicked him so hard he was pushed under the bed hitting his head on the frame in the process his mother called under the bed with him to protect him from any
further injury on yet another occasion around the age of seven Bobby held Jon’s head underwater in a swimming pool he told onlookers that he needed to teach him a lesson at around seven or 8 years old JN and his sister Dorothy went to live with his Aunt Jean he had arrived at her house JN had very few language skills and could barely speak whatsoever Jean spent hours and hours helping him develop his speech skills John was very small for his age and was also born with deformed ears that would later prove to
make him a target for bullies at school it was noted that he was often bullied and beaten up by other children John would never Strike Back instead he would just cower until his cousins could come and save him both Jon and his sister were placed in a special education program when their Aunt Jean enrolled them in school even with this extra support JN continued to fall behind his peers it was noted that his aunt tried on several occasions to get JN into specialized programming but was repeatedly turned down Jean also ensured
that J got corrective surgery to fix the ear abnormality and hopefully help cut down on the bullying that he experienced it was later discovered that JN and his sister were being essed while he lived with his aunt both by their uncle and maternal grandfather JN witnessed several of the attacks on his sister and reported that he felt helpless to stop them the first recorded event of problematic Behavior started when John was just 10 years old that day he tried to undress his cousin while she napped on the couch his cousin said after that
she was not afraid of JN and as she put it understood that he had stunted mental development and was like a small child inside after this incident Jon went to live with a different Aunt who quickly had him placed at a boy’s Ranch it is unclear what Jon experienced between ages 10 and ages 19 it appears that he started self-medicating with drugs and alcohol at a very young age John’s first runin with the law occurred at the age of 19 on a night he was drunk he broke into a young girl’s home through her window he attempted to abduct her but
she managed to escape and alert her mother he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison during his time he underwent several assessments and tests that showed he had an IQ of only 79 he told the evaluators that he had undergone several assessments early in life that diagnosed him with a mental illness but no services or assistance came from that there’s also no official record of a diagnosis prior to the age of 19 John was released after 2 years for good behavior and returned to his mother’s home under the supervision of a
parole officer however shortly after coming home to stay with them John made another attempt to essay a child’s this time he crawled into bed with his 5-year-old stepsister her older sister woke up and caught him in the a Irene later said she fully believed that he would have violated his sister if he had not been stopped Irene turned him into his parole officer the next day instead of arresting him for assault and attempted essay his parole officer just ordered him to leave his mother’s house he didn’t even file a report as he left
his mother told him to consider her dead from here on out this was the last draw he didn’t have a mother to return to anymore John would go on to marry a woman and have a daughter however the rocky marriage lasted a few years it ended when his wife discovered that he had essed his own daughter once again no official report was made and he was just told to leave a year later he assaulted a 5-year-old who lived a few doors down this time he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison he told officers that prison would not help him and he
needed help and once again he was released after 2 years upon release John was supposed to attend an treatment program however his file was misplaced by his parole officer and he never showed up for treatment it wasn’t long before police lost track of him all together in total JN had been arrested 23 times before his path crossed with Jesse this brings us back to 2005 where John was not living at the address his parole officer had on record instead he was living with his sister Dorothy in her three-bedroom trailer John had the
middle bedroom between his sister and his niece it’s important to note that at this time there was an active warrant out for his arrest police had also visited the home John was living in two weeks prior to the incident we were about to describe but they did not arrest JN now in the we morning hours of February 24th John drunk and high on crack left his sister’s trailer and walked the 65 yards to Jesse’s trailer it appeared that joh cut their screen door and used the opening to reach inside and open the lock door John
claimed that his intention was just to burglarize the home he claimed that after he entered the home he saw Jessie and his impulses took over so he changed his plan in his own words John woke Jesse telling her that he was going to take her to see her father it appeared that Jesse trusted JN and was not afraid she asked if she could take the purple dolphin her father had won for her at a fair a few weeks prior John said yes to help keep the girl calm and they walked out of the house together Jon took her back to his room possibly entering
through a ladder propped against his window instead of the front door JN then proceeded to essay Jesse several times over the next several hours John would later say that he had a vague recollection of cooking or a hamburger before his other housemates woke up he also said that he made her go to the bathroom in the closet because he didn’t want anyone else to see her at 5:45 a.m.
Mark returned home from his girlfriend’s house to prepare for work he heard Jesse’s alarm going off but originally thought nothing of it and went to his room and got dressed when he came out of his room her alarm was still going off he decided he better go see why Jesse wasn’t getting up for school of course when johon opened her door he found her bed empty and her school clothes still folded on the chair at first he thought she might have crawled into bed with his parents so he went into their room but Jesse wasn’t there he quickly woke up
his parents and told them that Jesse was gone now Jesse was afraid of the dark so Mark Ruth and Archie were sure something terrible must have happened because Jessie wouldn’t have snuck off on her own the police arrived shortly after Mark called to report that his daughter was missing by then Ruth had noticed an L-shaped cut in their screen door this cut was approximately 6 in x 6 in and located right next to the door handle one asset that the Lunsford Family had to assist police was a full set of Jesse’s finger prints she had gone to
the mall on a day that they were running a child protection ID program where she was photographed and fingerprinted the prints were placed on a card along with her General description this allowed police to have an accurate comparison for her fingerprints even before she was found officers arrived quickly and began their search of the Lunsford home and thoroughly vacuumed the entire trailer for evidence Ruth told the officers that there was absolutely nothing out of place except the cut and the screen door One Source said that Mark drove up and
down the road surrounding their house that morning calling Jesse’s name out the open car window it wasn’t long before officers took Mark and Archie into custody to question them the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office interrogated Mark and Archie sure that one of them had been the perpetrator it seemed that they leaned particularly hard to Archie as he was the one home with Jesse that night one point Archie an elderly man attempted to leave and was manhandled and pushed into the wall by officers they told told them that they had DNA
evidence linking Archie to her disappearance this obviously was not true they even said that Archie had committed similar crimes in the past this also was not true the only shred of truth that may have come along with this statement was actually linked to Mark not Archie when police sees Mark’s laptop to look for evidence they found something else Mark’s computer had CSA material on it and police were able to tell that the last time it had been accessed was the night that Jesse went Miss Mark was never charged with any crime in
relation to this discovery and it’s unclear how the material made its way onto his laptop that first day as they held Mark in their custody police went back and searched all the locations he had visited on his truck route the day before of course that didn’t turn up any leads finally after holding Mark for 2 days police were forced to release him meanwhile a national alert had been issued for the missing girl and community members poured in to help search there were helicopters search and rescue dogs officers on Horseback people
on four-wheelers and a team of divers that were combing nearby bodies of water police were unable to issue an amber alert as part of the requirements for an amber alert are knowing what vehicle the child might be in absolutely no leads that wasn’t an option however Jesse’s story was featured on America’s Most Wanted a very popular True Crime TV show in the 90s starring John Walsh whose own son was the namesake for code Adam US Postal Service also assisted by delivering in over 100,000 flyers for the missing child the Citrus County
Sheriff’s Office set up their Command Center directly outside of Mark’s house this would be later criticized by Jesse’s family and other members of the public standard protocol is to set up the command center at least a quarter mile away if not a full mile the problem with setting up so close to the crime scene is that it contaminates the evidence mark would later say that all the search and rescue dogs would start tracking Jesse sent in their home and then follow it right back to the command center and then lose the trail the
command center was set up directly between Jesse’s home in Jon’s home as hundreds of community members frantically search for Jesse she was locked in Jon’s closet just yards away from her house now in the closet John had left a TV displaying the news coverage of Jesse’s disappearance that’s horrifying can you imagine watching the news coverage of your own abduction while you’re powerless to escape mark would later criticize police for claiming they were doing a door-to-door search in the area but never doing it
however most records show that police did circulate through the neighborhood on that first day asking neighbors if they had seen anything police knocked on the door to John’s trailer his sister spoke to police saying that they didn’t have any information about the missing girl now keep in mind at this point police didn’t even know that JN lived at that address as his parole officer completely lost track of him the officer described the trailer John lived in as being full of addicts and drug users after not coming up with any leads with
Jesse’s family they moved on to the next most likely group of people folks on the registry in February of 2005 there were 208 registered offenders in Citrus County 50 of them lived within the towns immediately surrounding Jesse’s home as police began checking in on all the offenders in the area they discovered that JN was not living where he was supposed to be wasn’t long before they connected JN back to his sister’s house in fact JN was at his sister’s house when police stopped by for the second time when police knocked on the door Jon
stepped out back while his sister spoke to police and denied that Jon lived with them at that time police did a quick walk through of the home but didn’t see anything suspicious Unfortunately they didn’t check in Jon’s closet if they had they would have found Jesse who was still waiting to be rescued least noted that upon the second visit the adults in the house seemed openly nervous and shaken this visit from the police spooked John and it seems that he began to fear that the police would discover that he had taken the girl he knew he
had to cover his track somehow so John began digging a hole behind the trailer easily within the sight of the command center set up to lead the search for Jesse after 3 days in captivity under the cover of Darkness John told Jesse he was going to bring her home once again promising to bring her back to her dad Jon had her climb out his window and down the ladder he then told her he would carry her back across the street if she would climb into a trash bag with her hands tied in front of her holding her purple dolphin Jesse climbed
into the trash bag and sat down johon tied the bag tightly over her head and then put another trash bag over the first tying it underneath Jesse he then put her in the hole and buried her medical examiners would later say that the seal from the two trash bags would have quickly restricted Jesse’s ability to breathe they estimated that she would have lost Consciousness within 90 seconds and was dead in no more than 5 minutes John may have thought that his problem was solved once Jesse was out of his house however the feverish search
for the little girl continued shortly after Jesse’s disappearance Jon’s niece and her family moved out of the trailer they had all been sharing at this point Jon’s sister claimed to give Jon $200 for a bus ticket to leave town instead JN decided to stay inside his niece’s home she bought him a bus ticket in her name as an ID is required to purchase a bus ticket then he stayed in their home while the family went to Disney World for a few days when she returned she drove him to the bus station and he left Florida and went to Savannah Georgia
it’s unclear why John’s family went through so much trouble to help get him across state lines but one could assume that they knew he needed to get out of town now whether that was because he was about to be in trouble for failing to register a change of address as an offender or because they knew about Jesse we may never know at the time JN was in Georgia a nationwide arrest warrant had been issued for him technically the arrest warrant was for his failure to report his change of address however it was made public that
he was a person of interest in the Jessica Lunsford disappearance thankfully Jon was recognized by someone in Savannah on March 12th officers with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office went to Savannah to speak to him the first time officers spoke to John they made it clear he was not under arrest although some sources indicate that he was taken in on a warrant for weed possession John denied knowing anything about Jesse other than what he had seen on the news told officers he’d been living with his niece for the 3 weeks prior and with his
sister before that however the address he gave for his sister was his last known address not the trailer near Jesse’s house some sources say that Jon was initially interviewed and released twice within the first 24 to 48 hours that the police were in Savannah what we know is that on the 14th officers wanted to speak to John one more time however he didn’t seem to be in Savannah anymore a few days later John was located in Augusta Georgia by a worker in the Salvation Army shelter he was staying in the worker allegedly recognized his
picture from the news it should be noted that we have seen in some sources say that this happened in Savannah While others say it was Augusta when police located him again in Augusta on March 17th they asked John if he’d be willing to take a polygraph test JN initially agreed then changed his mind and asked for a lawyer however the police did not stop their interrogation as they should have instead they kept pushing John until he agreed to do the polygraph test One Source said he requested a lawyer eight times and police still kept
pushing when John finished the polygraph test he said something to the effect of I don’t need you to tell me the result I already know what they say he then confessed to the abduction essay of Jesse as well as buring Jesse alive in his confession he told police where they could find her body it didn’t take long for the next steps to be set into motion John was arrested and the officers who had been interrogating him reported back to their Department in Florida so that they could go investigate the trailer immediately when officers got to the
trailer They seized a bloodstained mattress from Jon’s room several pillows and some of Jon’s clothes off the floor eventually the investigators even seized the walls right out of the closet as evidence police also found the shovel JN used to bury Jesse which still had fresh dirt on the blade most importantly they found where Jesse was buried less than 100 yard from her own front door Jesse was found inside two trash bags her body was in a state of medium de composition inside she was clutching the purple dolphin her father had won for her this
dolphin would go on to be an important piece of emotional evidence in the trial however the original dolphin was saturated with fluid from her decomposition because of this the Dolphins seen in court photos was an exact replica that the prosecution submitted into evidence the only part of Jesse’s body that was not decomposing were two of her fingers that were outside of the trash bags appeared that Jesse put up a struggle to breathe or Escape at some point either before or after she went into the ground those two
fingers were partially mummified from their exposure to the environment outside the bag it was determined that Jesse died of Suffocation during her autopsy it was found that Jesse had injuries to her privates that proved she had been assaulted by John these injuries were unhealed and would have happened within the last 6 hours before her death the medical examiner was unsure how many times Jesse had been assaulted during her 3-day capture other than that injury her body did not show any other signs of harm she had no
bruises broken bones Cuts or abrasions in addition there was no sign of food in her digestive tract it showed that it had been between 12 hours and 3 days since she had been fed well this means it is possible she wasn’t fed anything her fingerprints would also be found on a pizza box so they could not conclude she was intentionally starved during her captivity Jesse also had evidence of coke on her body it was clear she did not ingest it but was around people who were using it even that level of exposure would have affected a
99-year-old girl the time Jesse was found she had been missing for 22 days most people had given up hope that she would be found alive Mark was told that her body was found his stoic response was relief that she was finally brought home on March 26th 2005 a public memorial service was held for Jesse in Florida over 1,000 MERS showed up to stand with the Lansford and honor the happy little girl another Memorial was held in Ohio where her mother lived with over 300 attendees John was officially booked into the Citrus County Jail one week
after being discovered in Augusta Georgia on April 1st 2005 a grand jury charged Jon with first-degree murder kidnapping burglary and sexual battery he plad not guilty and was sent back to the county jail and held without bail police went on to charge the rest of the adults in the house as well John’s half sister her husband and her daughter were all charged with obstruction of justice for lying to the police the other adult living the house was not present when police were there but he was arrested and charge with failure to pay child
support these charges would all eventually be dropped it seems likely that this was an exchange for their testimonies while John sat in jail waiting for a trial that wouldn’t come for two years Mark was not content to just sit and wait doesn’t take a genius to look at Jon’s criminal history and know that so much more could have been done Mark decided he could not stand by while repeat child victim offenders continued to get their sentences pled down could not stand by while more offenders fell through the cracks and
were given the space to reoffend Mark began the movement to get the Jessica Lunsford Act passed in as many states as possible this is also known as Jesse’s law or Jessica’s law these titles are used by the media to describe legislation proposed in any state that is modeled after the initial act that Mark proposed in Florida Mark’s proposed changes include the following all offenders found guilty of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child Under 12 would have a minimum sentence of 25 years in jail all child victim offenders
would be tracked after they were charged and after being released from prison after being released they would be on probation for life this law made it mandatory for schools to do background checks on every employee from a janitor to a principal the public must be notified when an offender moves to the area in addition a conviction of sexual battery would carry a minimum sentence of life prison without parole the first state to adopt Jessica’s law was Florida just over 2 months after her disappearance it was signed into law by
then Governor Jeb Bush on May 2nd 2005 but Mark was not done with over 600,000 registered offenders in the country at the time Mark knew there were more children who needed protecting Mark quit his job and went on the road full-time traveled from state to state giving presentations and speaking to politicians he pushed states to adopt harsher punishments and more more stringent monitoring after Florida he moved on to Pennsylvania and Kentucky in each state that he went to he was always met with resistance initially now most
us-based listeners of the show probably live in a state where some form of Jessica’s law was adopted before 2010 so for many of you this may feel very common place currently 42 states have adopted some version of the Jessica Lansford act so if these restrictions feel normal you may be wondering why any state would be resistant to these ideas the biggest thing that legislators lawyers prosecutors and judges pushed back at was the minimum sentence of 25 years many prosecutors do not favor minimum sentences when a crime comes
with a minimum sentence prosecutors lose a major bargaining chip we have covered numerous cases where a sentence was negotiated down in exchange for a confession Mark had many supporters and even teamed up with the organization stopped child Predators he was often escorted by his motorcycle club from one location to another as he began branching out further and further Mark developed a solid group of donors and supporters eventually his supporters purchased Sylvester Stallone’s former tour bus to help Mark travel more
comfortably Mark made his plea for change any place that he could he spoke at the Justice Department’s victims week in Washington DC however he wasn’t just showing up at State houses to talk to politicians Mark went to speak at car dealers ship schools community centers businesses and even private homes even went on to the popular Miami Inc reality show to get a new tattoo in honor of Jesse and to help spread the word even further some states were harder to persuade than others during one of his first visits to Utah Mark essentially
got stood up by the people who invited him to come speak at a later date he returned and was greeted at the airport by legislators who were ready to make big changes Mark’s documentary Jesse’s dad which you can watch on YouTube you can see that after Mark arrived he felt like he had been tricked again Utah’s proposed Bill included the option to plead down to as little as 3 years if the judge found it to be in the interest of Justice we assume this means that a negotiation can be made if it helps either put that person behind bars or
catch another criminal Mark was told by Utah politicians that it was just a political reality that such big changes would be made to his original proposal upon further reading and explanation mark learned that there are varying levels of minimum sentences for for example 15 to life for an attempted essay of a child under 13 this would encourage the offender to plead guilty and get 15 years instead of taking the chance on a trial where they’re found not guilty law ended up passing unanimously as the 34th state to adopt a
version of Jesse’s law Mark also decided to file a lawsuit against the Citrus County Sheriff’s Department for what he considered to be a grave mishandling of his daughter’s case Not only was the crime scene severely contaminated by the location of the command center they also walked into Jon’s room while Jesse was still alive in the closet and didn’t find her they didn’t notied that their neighbor was digging a grave just 3 days after she went missing they violated Jon’s constitutional rights to a lawyer causing his confession to be thrown out
and according to Mark the list goes on when locals heard that Mark was going to sue the department there was an enormous outrage even Mark’s mother felt it wasn’t a helpful step in their healing he was criticized for not asking for changes to be made in the department Mark argued that he had attempted to have those conversations however every time he came with examples of things that had been bungled in the investigation he was met with the same Mantra that this was a textbook investigation the department didn’t do
anything wrong finally after really making it public how badly the department messed up and after the sheriff had no choice but to face the music Mark and Sheriff Jeff doy sat down together without any media and had a private conversation Mark agreed to drop the suit against the department and Sheriff dossi agreed to make the necessary changes finding the appropriate venue to hold Jon’s trial proved to be very difficult du the public nature of Jesse’s story it proved to be impossible to find an impartial jury in fact they
searched for over 20 weeks they were not able to find a single juror in Citrus County who could say they were impartial in the case everyone had heard about Jesse and had been exposed to the news outlets talking about J’s confession and the media coverage as her body was found by his trailer ultimately upon the request of the defense the trial was moved decided the trial would be held Miami Florida Miami is about 300 miles away from Homosassa where Jesse had been killed his location was able to supply a less biased jury on June 30th 2006 case
against John Koy hit a major speed bump when Jon’s request to have his confession thrown out was approved by the judge this was of course due to the unethical police work that elicited the confession after he had requested an attorney more than half a dozen times this suddenly shifted the burden of proof for the prosecution in a major way without the confession any evidence found because of the confession was also inadmissible prosecution and the whole police force that investigated the case now had to prove that all the evidence
they were using to convict would have been found eventually without the confession prosecution was able to argue that because of the close proximity to Jesse’s home the burial site would have been found eventually especially as the investigators had already named Jon as a person of interest in addition while Jon was in jail awaiting his trial he didn’t exactly maintain his innocence he confessed to several inmates and guards in many of those instances he spoke about regretting killing her as he just wasn’t that kind of person or so he said
or that he panicked when he realized the police were narrowing in on him he also admitted to one person that he had been watching Jesse from his window for several days before he took her even without the confession the actual physical evidence was extremely damning after police seized John’s mattress they tested several stains Jesse’s blood and John’s DNA were found on the mattress together prosecution held up the actual mattress in the courtroom to show the extent of the blood stains also found Jesse’s fingerprints inside the closet
and on a pizza box taken from his room due to the full set of fingerprints the lunsford’s had on file these could have been found and matched even without finding Jesse’s body the only defense that Jon’s team seemed to be arguing was that Jon was so mentally handicapped from his years of childhood trauma and violence that he deserved the jury’s sympathy now earlier in the episode we told you about the extreme trauma that Jon suffered in his early years the defense was attempting to claim that Jon shouldn’t be eligible for the death
penalty because he had such a severe intellectual disability John’s team called many witnesses to the stand to try to persuade the jury that Jon was really functioning at a childlike level they argued that he couldn’t control his impulses due to brain damage and didn’t have the functional life skills to be expected to take care of himself it even seemed that the defense was trying to play up this through Jon’s behavior in the courtroom Jon sat at the table next to his lawyers coloring in coloring books like a child throughout most of
the trial the prosecution pushed back they pointed out that the defendant’s IQ score of 64 was a major outlier compared to the other tests he had taken in the past due to Jon’s status and special education as a child and his previous convictions Jon had undergone six different IQ tests the highest score he had received over the years was a score of 89 is important to note that the laws against executing people with intellectual disabilities note that the threshold for this is an IQ below 70 the judge determined that with all of the
data compiled Jon had a working IQ of 78 in addition one expert pointed out that someone could fake a lower IQ score but it was impossible to fake a higher IQ score in addition many of Jon’s friends co-workers and supervisors were called to testify about Jon’s ability to work he was presented by the people closest to him as hardworking and capable he held many responsibilities that would have been much too complex for a person with a diagnosable intellectual disability to maintain in addition several of the factors surrounding
Jesse’s abduction and death showed pre-planning on John’s part not the impulsive behavior of someone who didn’t understand the consequences for example he had dug the hole he buried Jesse and before convinced her to climb into the bags at the end of John’s trial Victim Impact statements were read two letters were read by Jesse’s guidance counselor and third grade teacher they talked of the children in the community who were now terrified to sleep alone in the wake of Jessica’s murder with many of them sleeping in their parents’ beds for
these children their sense of security had been stolen by John I hope you hear her cries as you try to sleep at night I hope you see the tears run down her face when she asked you to go home I hope you spend the rest of your life in fear of death you will never hurt another child again judge Howard speaking for myself for my community and the nation I plead with you to accept the recommendation of the jury for death as presented to you by the jury 10 to2 and a vote of 12 for four guilty verdicts and to remember the
words of a wise old black man and teraves it’s just too heavy your honor it’s too heavy for mercy on Wednesday March 7th 2007 John kuy was found guilty on all counts the jury came back with a 10 to2 recommendation that he be sentenced to death in August of the same year a judge chose to honor this recommendation and John was sentenced to death however John would not make it to the date of his execution he died of natural causes on September 30th 2009 at 51 years old JN had been sick with anal cancer for some
time and he succumbed to his illness Mark reported that he was relieved to hear that Jon had finally died felt that this simplified everything State no longer had to spend $55,000 a year to house JN and Mark and his family didn’t have to spend the next 10 to 15 years wondering what would happen they wouldn’t have to listen to appeals submitted for the next decade to change his sentence when asked if Mark forgave John he did not even hesitate before he said no so it didn’t feel like this marked the end of his advocacy so that
John was only one of 600,000 registered offenders in our country with me here is Mark lindford the father of Jessica lford Mark I’ve known you for quite a few years um for the first time I could say I had a genuine smile from you today what was your reaction well you know I’m it was kind of it was a big surprise most definitely I got a call from the prison system they wanted to let me know that uh that that John Cy was found dead in his cell and the autopsy hadn’t been done yet but they would let me know as
soon as it was and it was just you know it was a little overwhelming it made made my day very exciting you know I don’t know if exciting is the right word maybe uh I was just really pumped uh I got on my bike took off and uh uh thought things through and uh I realized that you okay John C’s dead so what there’s still 600,000 more 600,000 more sex offenders in the country in in the United States there’s there’s over 4 million people in the State of Florida trading child but thank God to our governor and and and uh the
programs that we have available to us the state 77 of those guys were caught but uh but yeah I mean you know he’s not a burden to the State anymore and he’s not something that I have to think about anymore yeah and so you’re not thinking about him anymore but it doesn’t it seems like it is a relief for you though it is it’s a burden off your shoulders it well I I think it would be to to any family who um who whoever caused them some kind of grief like this was to die before their actual sentencing date it yeah I’m yeah most
definitely it does take a lot off of you I mean CU now you know have to no longer have to think about um you know his efforts for his next appeal uh or anything like that not that I had any doubt in the Florida system I know I don’t believe I mean I believe they had have killed him but there is that process called the process of appeals uh I heard that uh he had an appeal and he was asking for a life sentence instead of the death penalty I guess he got his answer didn’t he I like that I I really like that and I know your parents I talked to them
a little while AG ago they mentioned to me that they were praying that they would be able to be around to see his sentence carried out because the average day in in Florida on death row is 12 and a half years that’s a long time away how do you feel about him dying in this way from cancer rather than actually being put to death by the state prayer answered and you know that’s what they prayed for and he died and you know uh his cause of death uh isn’t sad at all uh for him probably it would be if it was someone
else to die that way but not for him um I’m but I’m just glad it’s over I mean you know we no longer he’s no longer a burden to this state he’s no longer anything that uh that that my family and I have to think about whether or not what’s going to happen to him in 12 to 15 years U I think it’s like $55,000 a year that it cost the state to have him there hey we don’t have to pay that no more uh so you know uh but it’s it’s okay with me that he’s dead it’s okay it’s okay with me whether it beat a day or 12 and 1/2 years as
long as it happens and you know uh that’s that’s not Justice though that’s not it doesn’t have anything to do with Justice you mentioned you mentioned to me earlier that um no matter how he died how much pain he was in with cancer it really it didn’t compare it it won’t compare to to their victims sexual offenders and predators uh what they put their victims through whether they uh you know die or survive which one has it the worst you know there’s there’s no comparison to what those children and uh uh and some adult women have to go
through uh and and what they do what it does to their lives if they survive uh some of these people can be Fighters and some of them can’t and uh so you know it’s uh there’s no comparison to how any anybody who would commit a crime like that if he dies how he dies does not compare to his victims did you ever wish that you would have been able to sit down and actually talk to the man face to face no no I could think of better things to do the system will never allow you to let that happen but uh but like I said dude it it ended a
lot of things uh a lot of thoughts uh for me about him those thoughts are I don’t have to think Stu any I know in a lot of his letters one of his last few letters that he sent out from prison ironically never had a visitor in jail but he sent out a few letters and always mentioned God and wrote Bible verses what do you think about that and and now that he’s died well I mean you know uh is there forgiveness not for me you know but he’s not he didn’t he didn’t come to me he went to God you know uh and I can’t speak for God but uh but I can’t
take tell you that uh uh I’ve been told that God says if you hurt one of his kids you’d be better off with a rope tied around your neck with a rock and throw it in the deepest sea compared to what he’s going to do to you so uh maybe uh maybe why John was laying there dying maybe his feet was getting hot and then his ass caught on fire and then his head bursted into flames what’s next for for you Mark I know earlier you mentioned U you know this will be the last question for you what’s next for you you mentioned the
other sex Defenders that are here in the country the hundreds of thousands of them and just are you going to continue your fight yeah I do I I I tried to show as much support in warington and on a state level to the US Marshals and to local law enforcement who works with the US Marshals on these sting operations to go out and apprehend the upsc unded sex offenders uh the you know they’re short funded so constantly Advocates like myself edmart surviving parents Coalition the national Center for Mission children we’re all in support of
of being real hard on uh uh uh Federal legislators up in DC because they they are not funding things the way they should be um I know President Obama made a statement during his campaign that he was in support uh but you know where’s the funding for these things Mark ler thank you very much and enjoy your time thank in 2009 the trailer that Jesse had been kept in during her abduction burned to the ground location of the murder that rocked the community was finally gone on February 24th 2005 the Lunsford Family changed forever
9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was missing like a page from a drama grandmother Ruth Lansford felt helpless I used to sit there and look out that window and I’d say come on Jesse walk through them Woods it was more wooded than it is now and I think come on walk through them Woods it was a time that you’d want to forget but Ruth decided it was something they would always have to face I had stacks of newspapers and I thought this isn’t no good we got to do do something else Ruth decided that every horrible headline
every word describing this family’s heartache would go into a scrapbook it’s not an easy thing to do because um this is my granddaughter and we were very very close so from the first headline she was missing Ruth cut it up and Tenderly placed it into a three- ring binder four of them for every year years like 2005 filled its binder going from the search for Jesse Jesse’s home now to finding her killer and you realize that if they hadn’t found him that we would have been the culprits to finally being able to put her granddaughter to rest when they
lifted the the balloons up you know all these balloons were together and once Mark looked up there and he said there’s one going off all by itself that’s Jesse this was at the trial 2007 was full too with the trial of the killer so that’s all about the prosecution itself and John kuy’s eventual sentencing to death you were thinking well this is it this is the end but it wasn’t the end it just kept going and going and going 2009 had just started when there was some good news outside Ruth’s bedroom window the
trailer where kui lived and murdered Jessica was burned to the ground and I’m standing in there and saying what took you so long Lord and a little over halfway through really only a few pages into this year’s book Ruth put one final page in Jess’s killer dies Ruth would have put a different headline I don’t know maybe I would write Hallelujah on there or something October 1st 2009 is the last day Ruth wants to put into her scrapbooks now that it’s all over with he’s not here no more maybe this really is the end no story book ending Jessica
will never come through those woods but it’s a part of life that the lunarts can finally close the book on over the years Mark took step to become more of a professional advocate for children however as anyone who does advocacy work for children can tell you that kind of work can certainly take its toll in his documentary there are several occasions where Mark seemed to be in increasingly anxious and struggling with intrusive thoughts ultimately the stress of work would be too much for him and he broke up with
his girlfriend as a result in the documentary there is talk about a problem Mark’s son ran into right in the middle of all of Mark’s advocacy work to make sure offenders are locked up his 18-year-old son Josh was charged with unlawful sexual conduct of a minor at age 17 Josh had been dating his girlfriend who was only 14 at the time when he turned 18 he was turned into the police the report was that he put his hands in his girlfriend’s pants when they were kissing is unclear who made this report but it’s rumored that it was
an adult who was trying to retaliate against Mark after he had filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department Josh ended up pleading down to a lesser crime and served 10 days in jail Mark’s Work also took on a much more concrete existence as he and his team opened Jesse’s place a child ad y center in lanto Florida during his time as an advocate John was exposed to just how broken our system is for children who aren’t in stable loving homes Center provides forensic interviews medical exams and therapy came be youth centered
resource for neglected children and those who were victims of CA Mark stressed that our system in America is simply not built for children system relies on children going to an adult for help then that adult needs to actually help them the center gives children a place where they could go for help without needing a referral from an adult as of the date of this recording Jesse’s place is still operating they are still holding fundraising events to continue their important work their website it says when a child receiv receives
services at Jesse’s place it is with the purpose of alleviating the painful events in their life and beginning their journey to recovery which allows them to feel like a child again we’d like to end with a quote from Mark that he said after John was sentenced to death Mark was talking about why his work would not stop even after sentencing he said Justice was served for this little girl but what about the rest of them what about the ones who survive killing a child is the worst but who has it the worst the child that dies or the child
that survives
