Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy today called a news conference after hearing of the death this morning of John Evander Couey.

Couey was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa.

Dawsy said both he and Ruthie Lunsford, Jessica’s grandmother, felt as if 1,000 pounds had been lifted from their shoulders when they heard the news. He said that there will now the chapter can be closed on the murder, and the community and the Lunsfords won’t have to hear the case again during further appeals of the case.

“You know, I would rather have seen John Couey die a different way,” Dawsy told reporters. “I would rather have seen the government put John Couey to death. That did not happen, so we have the next option – nature takes its course. And I have to agree with Ruth – I hope that he suffered. But there’s no suffering that he’s going to go through compared to what he put Jessica through.”

Still, he said, justice has been served in Couey’s case.

Dawsy said he was surprised at the news that Couey had been transferred to a hospital, and had died there. The first thing that came to his mind was a sense of relief and satisfaction. And there was also disappointment. “There was true disappointment on my end that I couldn’t be there when John Couey was put to death. That was always one of my goals – to be there and watch him take his last breath.”

As for reaction from the Lunsford family, Ruthie, Dawsy said, was ecstatic. “She was outside thanking, God. Mark Lunsford, he said, was on an emotional roller coaster, made especially tough by the fact that Jessie’s birthday is in six days. She would have been 14.

Lunsford told reporters after Dawsy’s news conference that when he heard the news, he jumped on his motorcycle and took a ride for awhile. Asked by a reporter if he could forgive Couey, Mark said no. “He didn’t come to me, he went to God,” he said bluntly.

Both Dawsy and Lunsford said that one good thing that came out of his grief was the Jessica Lunsford Act. “Jessica’s name will live on forever, making the children, not only in the state of Florida, but of this nation, much safer,” Dawsy said. “It has brought the lawmakers into some sort of understanding that there are some very bad people that are predators on our children. And it has made law enforcement – especially in the state of Florida – very cognizant of the dangers that we have, and that we need to move forward and take an aggressive and proactive role (to) thwart these people who want to do this to our children.”

Still, the scar of what John Couey did to the community in Citrus County will not go away, and should be a lesson to other states in the nation, Dawsy said. “If I have a John Couey in rural Citrus County, you have John Couey in your community.”

Asked if he knew Couey’s cause of death, Dawsy said he heard it was anal cancer, and called it “fitting.”

News Conference Video: