DeFUNIAK SPRINGS —Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore let Steven Cozzie’s own words put the final touch Thursday to his case for conviction of first-degree murder.
Two weeks after his arrest for the killing of 15-year-old vacationer Courtney Wilkes on June 16, 2011, Cozzie requested an interview with 30-year Walton County Sheriff’s Office veteran Stephen Sunday, the lead investigator in the case.
When Sunday arrived at the jail he was presented with a written document that laid out what Cozzie was going to tell him. Cozzie then told Sunday that he had killed Wilkes, but was forced to do so at gunpoint by his friend, Michael Spencer.
“He pulled out a gun and told me to kill her, so I killed her,” Cozzie told Sunday. “I’ve never had anything like that happen to me in my life.”
The taped conversation was played Thursday afternoon for the jury trying Cozzie on charges of first-degree murder, rape, child abuse and kidnapping. The state will seek the death penalty if Cozzie is convicted.
Elmore rested the prosecution’s case after the tape was played.
Cozzie is accused of luring Wilkes away from her family and leading her to the secluded Cassine Gardens Nature Trail in Seagrove Beach. There, when she decided she wanted to return to her family, he pulled off his shirt and began to strangle her. The strangulation continued until the 6-foot, 2-inch Cozzie was able to subdue the smaller Wilkes, according to authorities. He then raped her and beat her to death with a piece of lumber.
In another tape played for the jury Thursday, Cozzie denies over and over again the night of his arrest that had killed Wilkes.
In the second tape, recorded Aug. 1, 2011, Cozzie told Sunday that he had lied in the original interview by telling investigators he had never taken Wilkes to the nature walk where her body was found. He said he was there with the girl when he slipped and fell on her, and she was knocked unconscious when she hit her head on a cypress stump.
“I seen blood, that’s why I panicked,” Cozzie told Sunday.
He also said in the interview that he was high on marijuana and Ecstasy.
Although a deputy testified Thursday that Cozzie had slept in his patrol car on the way to the county jail the night of his arrest, Cozzie said in his written statement to Sunday, “I had remorse” after killing Wilkes.
“It was my job to bring the girl back safely and I failed,” he said.
“The killing was not one of violence, it was me being forced to do it,” he said in his statement. “The truth is I was drug induced, and the truth is I was forced by Mike Spencer.”
Cozzie told Sunday that Spencer wanted Wilkes dead and even discussed mutilating her.
Spencer was a key figure in the investigation. He led deputies to Wilkes’ body the day of the killing and testified Wednesday that Cozzie had shown it to him and described what he had done to her.
In the tape made the night of Cozzie’s arrest, officers tell him that Spencer has been cooperating with law enforcement.
Jennifer Hatler, a DNA expert with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, provided testimony Thursday that put Cozzie at the scene and a made the case that Spencer, the man Cozzie said forced him to kill Wilkes, was not present.
Cozzie’s DNA was found on a Hawaiian shirt soaked with Wilkes’ blood that was found near the body, Hatler testified. His DNA was also discovered on the girl’s thigh, and her DNA was found under his fingernails.
The likelihood that the DNA taken from Cozzie’s hands did not belong to Wilkes was “one in one quadrillion,” Hatler said.
Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos also rested his case Thursday without calling any witnesses. He told Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells that he would save his witnesses for “the next phase” of the trial, indicating perhaps that he believes a murder conviction is a foregone conclusion and that he’s preparing for the death penalty phase.
He and Elmore will present final arguments this morning before the jury begins deliberations.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.