Child killer sentenced to death
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NEW: Girl's father reacts after judge gives John Evander Couey death penalty
Couey was convicted of kidnapping and killing Jessica Lunsford, 9
Couey said in phone conversation that he expects death sentence
Victim's father led push for stronger sex-offender controls
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(CNN) -- John Evander Couey was sentenced Friday to death for abducting, raping and killing a 9-year-old Florida girl by burying her alive in 2005.
John Evander Couey, in court Friday, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 9-year-old girl.
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"We need to send a message that Florida will not tolerate these kind of crimes," the girl's father, Mark Lunsford, said after the sentencing, wiping tears from his eyes.
Judge Ric Howard pronounced the sentence as Couey, 48, stood in shackles and an orange jail jumpsuit in an Inverness, Florida, courtroom.
"[Couey] caused a slow, suffering, conscious death," the judge said as he described the murder of Jessica Lunsford in chilling detail.
"Jessica was placed in not one, but two plastic trash bags. She was conscious at the time of her entombment," the judge said.
He described how the girl poked two fingers through the bags to try to escape before she died.
"Simply stated, civilized society recoils in horror at the image of the abject fear and terror that Jessica experienced in her final, conscious minutes of life," the judge said. Watch Couey being sentenced to death »
In March, a jury deliberated for about an hour before recommending 10-2 that Couey, a previously convicted sex offender with a 30-year criminal history, receive the death penalty.
In a recorded jailhouse phone call this month with a woman Florida corrections officials said is his aunt, Couey said he expected to be sentenced to death for killing Jessica in 2005.
"We all know what he's going to do," Couey said of the judge during the call, an excerpt of which CNN obtained.
He told the woman, "I kick myself in the butt a hundred times a day. Stupidity ... Just trying to figure out, I'm just asking myself, why was you so stupid?"
"Well, none of us are perfect, and the drugs didn't help any," the woman said.
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"No, that was a big problem," Couey said. "Drugs, alcohol."
The St. Petersburg Times reported that during the hourlong conversation, Couey also told the woman he wanted to be cremated after his execution.
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