DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A Walton County jury has decided that Seagrove Beach resident Steven Cozzie should die for the murder of 15-year-old Courtney Wilkes.
The 12-member panel deliberated for two hours Thursday morning before returning to the courtroom about 11 a.m. to notify Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells that they believed he should sentence the 23-year-old Cozzie to death.
Toni Wilkes, Courtney’s mother, addressed the media after the jury made its recommendation. It was the first time the family spoke publicly since Cozzie’s trial began almost two weeks ago.
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“We feel relieved. We feel vindicated. We feel this is the penalty he should have gotten,” Wilkes said. “It doesn’t relieve our circumstances, but today may be the first day of our healing.”
A Spencer hearing will be scheduled for prosecutor Bobby Elmore and Cozzie’s defense team to argue a final time for the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Wells will sentence Cozzie at some point after that hearing.
Cozzie looked somewhat stunned after the jury announced that each member believed he should be executed. A couple of jurors appeared to be crying after the recommendation was read to the court by the clerk, but when polled they all said they agreed with the call for death by lethal injection.
A tired Elmore said he was “comfortable” the jury had made the right decision.
“The world was a better place with Courtney Wilkes in it,” he said. “And the world will be a better place with Steven Cozzie removed from it.”
Courtney Wilkes was a bright, happy high schooler in June 2011 when she arrived in Seagrove Beach to spend a week vacationing with her parents, sister and brother.
On June 16 Cozzie, who the Wilkeses had seen hanging around Beachcrest condominium where they were staying, asked Courtney Wilkes to take a walk with him. Seeing the enthusiasm on Courtney’s face, her mother allowed her to go.
At the secluded Cassine Gardens nature trail nearby, Cozzie turned on Wilkes, throwing his shirt around her neck and strangling her. He then dragged her limp body 75 feet into the dry cypress swamp, where he raped her and then beat her to death with a heavy piece of lumber.
The jury last Friday found Cozzie guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, sexual assault, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping.
During the penalty phase that followed the actual trial, attorney Sharon Wilson presented Cozzie’s family members, who described him as mentally challenged young man who had been physically, emotionally and sexually battered inside and outside his home for most of his life.
In her final statements to jurors Wednesday, Wilson asked that they grant Cozzie mercy by sentencing him to life in prison.
Courtney Wilkes’ family was present every day at the trial and during the penalty phase. After Thursday’s jury recommendation, Toni Wilkes said the family would return home to Lyons, Ga., where she would visit Courtney’s grave to let her know the outcome.
“She was an amazing girl. Maybe too good for this world,” Toni Wilkes said.
She thanked the Walton County community that has embraced her family as well as her hometown for their support.
“We felt like they made it as easy as it could be for us,” she said.
An emotional Gwendolyn Schmidt, Cozzie’s half-sister, spoke briefly with the Wilkeses after the jury’s announcement. She apologized for the family’s loss.
“We’re sorry for you, too,” Toni Wilkes told Schmidt.