GUILTY FL - Carlie Brucia, 11, Sarasota, 1 February 2004

[Juliana]

I agree! But, at their age, they just don't belive that anything bad is going to happen to them. I showed this video to my 9-year-old and then went over some self-defense, avoidance, type lessons, and my child acted like I was being hysterical. They just do not believe that will happen to them. My child wants to walk home from school because so and so from our block is able to walk home by herself (and she is 2 years younger). I say "so what". All I can hope is that so and so is not kidnapped while walking home. I KNOW my child won't be kidnapped while walking home from school because I will be PICKING HIM UP. That's why I stopped working for crying out loud, to pick him up from school! What would I be doing while he is walking home, reading a magazine (websleuths, more than likely?) He can be mad at me if he wants. I would rather him be mad at me than missing.

 

[indigomood]

Please pray for a miracle for Carlie's safe return....


Inmate Release Information Detail

(This information was current as of 1/1/03)



DC Number: 899500
Name: SMITH, JOSEPH P
Race: WHITE
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: BLUE
Height: 5'07''
Weight: 178
Birth Date: 03/17/1966
Release Facility: SARASOTA
Current Custody: MEDIUM
Release Date: 01/01/2003




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stated Residence Upon Release:
Offender is currently under community supervision
Click here for additional information


Aliases:
JOE SMITH JOSEPH SMITH
JOSEPH P SMITH JOSEPH PETER SMITH


Identifiers:
DRIVER'S LICENSE - S5304950970 FINGERPRINT CLASS - TTAA06CO07AAAA0512TT


Scars, Marks, and Tattoos:
Type Location Description
TATTOO OTHER ON ARMS,CHEST,LEGS AND BACK


Current Prison Sentence History:
Offense Date Offense Sentence Date County Case No. Prison Sentence Length
03/31/1999 HEROIN-POSS.LESS/10 GRAMS 11/20/2001 SARASOTA 9904924 1Y 4M 24D
05/04/2000 OBT.SUB BY FRAUD OR ATT.(ATTEMPTED) 11/20/2001 SARASOTA 0006384 1Y 4M 24D
09/05/2001 OBT.SUB BY FRAUD OR ATT. 11/20/2001 SARASOTA 0112073 1Y 4M 24D
09/05/2001 POSS.CONTROL.SUBS/OTHER 11/20/2001 SARASOTA 0112073 1Y 4M 24D



Note: The offense descriptions are truncated and do not necessarily reflect the crime of conviction. Please refer to the court documents or the Florida Statutes for further information or definition.

Incarceration History:
Date In-Custody Date Out-of-Custody
12/13/2001 01/01/2003


Prior Community Supervision History: (Note: Data reflected covers periods of community supervision with the Florida Dept.of Corrections since January of 1983)
Offense Date Offense Sentence Date County Case No. Community Supervision Length
04/26/1993 AGG BATTERY INTENDED HARM 09/29/1993 SARASOTA 9301112 0Y 24M 0D
03/31/1999 HEROIN-POSS.LESS/10 GRAMS 03/01/2000 SARASOTA 9904924 0Y 18M 0D
05/04/2000 OBT.SUB BY FRAUD OR ATT. 09/28/2000 SARASOTA 0006384 0Y 6M 0D
05/04/2000 OBT.SUB BY FRAUD OR ATT. 09/28/2000 SARASOTA 0006384 0Y 12M 0D
03/31/1999 HEROIN-POSS.LESS/10 GRAMS 11/30/2000 SARASOTA 9904924 0Y 6M 0D
03/31/1999 HEROIN-POSS.LESS/10 GRAMS 11/30/2000 SARASOTA 9904924 0Y 12M 0D

 

[Texana]

To me she looked hesitant at the beginning, but then he said something to her. You have no idea what he told her. Most do gain their confidence.

I agree. It's really hard to tell exactly what her emotions were at that point--I have had my 11 y/o watch the video and I'll have the 7 y/o watch it again.

I am just physically sick over Carlie's abduction and my DH is so upset he won't even talk about it--We had already talked about getting our DDs into a selfdefense seminar this summer but this has both of us so upset he won't even talk about that right now.

The only thing he will say is that we should bring back public hanging for these people convicted of previous crimes against women and children--we are letting these men free to prey and prey again--we KNOW they aren't cured, and they aren't rehabilitated, and yet our society says these men have paid their debts and off they go to do even sicker crimes.

If this Joseph Smith suspect attempted to kidnap a woman, he shouldn't be free at any age where he doesn't need a walker to get around...and I wouldn't let him out then.

 

[Up2theminute]

I hope this doesn't go on without concrete answers for as long as Dru Sjodin's case has, thus far. Sick that they let people out into the world after so many repeated crimes as if it were all nothing.

I love your avatar, LoveMama. Congrats on the upcoming grandbaby.

 

[Bean]

Yesterday I got to the office, park in the metered parking on a busy street right across the street from my office and I go out 2 hours later to feed the meter and some jackass has SMASHED in the right rear backseat window to steal a box of children's clothing, I had planned to drop off at my cousin's after work! @#$!%! SMASHED IT!!!! It happened on a busy street, in broad daylight, and nobody saw a thing... which brings me to another point...

Sprout and I had our first teenage attitude malfunction recently
when she fought with me because I wouldn't let her and a friend go to the
bowling alley without either me, her dad or her grandfather with them. She
just came out of herself and literally was incredibly pissy and angry and rude to me until I brought her to her knees with soap in her mouth. She has since realized the error of her ways...

But this case is just heartbreaking and I made Sprout watch it several times
and impressed upon her that THIS is why she is not allowed to do anything
unsupervised. I don't care if she is not the cool kid in school. I don't
care if the popular boobie club teenage girls don't invite her to hang out
at their houses where their parents let them be home alone and go out at
night and cruise the neighborhood for teenage boys. I don't give a flying
fat rat's *advertiser censored* about that. This case is why I drive my daughter and pick her
up from everything and attend football games and basketball games if she
wants to go to them. It is why I go to the movies and sit in the back row
if I have to, when she wants to see a movie, it is why she doesn't get to go
to the bowling alley with just her friends or even the mall with just her
friends.

According to statistics 90% of stranger abductions, rapes and murders are
crimes of opportunity. Sorry, but I feel no pressure whatsoever to allow my
child to be some sick pervert's opportunity. The odds may be against her
being a victim... but why the fork would I even want to take that forkin
chance? It only takes a second.

There this rat *advertiser censored* was right on video, on a busy street, in broad daylight with the video played everywhere... he is now in jail :behindbar but Carlie who is 11 years old...still is not home with her mommy.

I don't care if my daughter never gets the experience of walking to the
store or to school, or around the neighborhood alone. That just means those
are a few opportunities some sick *advertiser censored* won't have to harm her.

Anyway- even though the window being shattered was a big inconvenience and I threw a hissy fit for a few minutes... I took a good look at it in
perspective of recent events and realize, sure it was a crime, it happened
in broad daylight, and nobody did a damn thing... but I was not hurt and my
child was not hurt. It was just a broken window and it could be fixed.
That's why there is insurance.

Who do we talk to about changing the laws so if a person harms a child they
lose all their rights forever and ever? Who do we see about making sure they have no insurance like appeals, probation and parole to set them free again?

Bean

 

[IdahoMom]

I think those reforms have to occur on a state-by-state basis. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Why not make this an election year issue for candidates? I think we should all rise up and say we're fed up and we're not going to take this anymore! Our children are being murdered! For gosh sakes! What is MORE IMPORTANT than that?

Alfonso Rodriguez should never have been released. This jerk should not have been acquitted the first time he tried to kidnap someone. I am sick that good families have to fear for the safety of their loved ones.

 

[Bean]

I just watched the video several times and I can't believe that Carlie doesn't appear to put up any sort of fight...she just seems to willingly go with the creep.
:banghead:

Justalurker,

I think it kind of looks that way too, but she is only 11 years old. I am sure it did not register that she needed to protect herself. She looked like she was in her own little world and was startled when he approached her. It looked to me like he pulled something from his right pocket, like showing her something, perhaps a weapon. It may be that she was trying to understand what he wanted. She is so young, and children just don't think someone is going to harm them in broad daylight. They wrongly believe that the people they should fear are the ones that look like they have a sign on them that announces they are the creepy person their mother warned them about. That is seldom how it happens, but too many people learn that the hard way.

I just think at 11 years old she was stunned and scared and didn't know the right thing to do.

I remember when Sprout was 11. She had just transferred into a new school. A very small school in a shi shi place where we lived where most of the kids came from families that had too much money and too little sense. The teacher's were all a little bitter that most of them commuted in because they couldn't afford to live in the county and then they had to deal with children who ran amok and who's parents often weren't paying attention to the facts that their children were into things well beyond their ages. So the school had a lot of strange rules like sixth graders could only sit with other sixth graders, and seventh graders the same thing etc... they had separate lunch hours, and absolutely no clothing revealing stomachs and such things like that.

I had no problem with that whatsoever. However, I did have a bit of a problem with the teachers generalizing about the children and what their parent's must be like. I consider us to be a normal household, with a moderate income and hard working people who are commited to raising a responsible child. However, the teaching staff did not always take the time to learn about the children and their family life and just treated them all the same way until given a reason to do otherwise.

Anyway- one of the rules at the school was no make-up for girls. Ok. I have no problem with that because I don't and didn't allow Sprout to wear make-up. Though one day the principal grabbed Sprout off the playground and marched her into his office where he lectured her for a half an hour about the school rules... about how she was new, and about his opinion of where she had been to school before and he disparaged the quality of people from her middle class neighborhood in her previous county who went to middle class schools in their middle class county... and how she was not going to bring her loose morals there to his school by wearing make-up and acting older and spoiled!!!!! He then gave her a kleenex and ordered her to remove her make-up as she sat there in his office crying.

ok... so that would have been out of line had she been wearing make-up. But the problem with this situation was she wasn't wearing any make-up. He saw nothing was coming off on the tissue and she was crying and he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her toward the nurses office and told her to get in there right now and wash her face and make sure she got it all off.

She was so horrified and scared that she couldn't even form the words to tell him she wasn't wearing make-up. She couldn't say a word.

Now, she had no problem arguing with me at 11. No problem arguing with her dad or anyone else she was familiar with. But in a situation where she was taken off-guard and where she didn't understand what was even happening, she didn't have the skills to defend herself. Now she wasn't in physical danger. Nobody hurt her physically. But she couldn't defend herself.

I can't imagine Carlie being in a situation with a stranger who surprised her by saying whatever to her, and possibly showing her a weapon. She probably was paralyzed by her fear.

as for Sprout's situation- I went down to the school and made for damn sure that principle looked good and long at Sprout's face and noticed that what he determined to be make-up was just her normal face!!!!!!! yes... her eyes are blue... yes her lashes are dark. No she is not wearing lipstick!!! He got a riot act like he had never heard before and then the superindendent got the riot act as well as the mayor and they received a call from my attorney. Sprout got a written and verbal in person apology from each of them and that principal was canned the following year after being actually sued by another parent for using physical force on a student.

While that whole thing was ugly and made me angry- it also showed me that a child, even when they know something to be amiss and an adult to be doing something wrong, is not always capable of defending themselves.

That is why we are supposed to protect them and limit their opportunities to become someone else's victim.

Bean

 

[Bean]

I think those reforms have to occur on a state-by-state basis. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Why not make this an election year issue for candidates? I think we should all rise up and say we're fed up and we're not going to take this anymore! Our children are being murdered! For gosh sakes! What is MORE IMPORTANT than that?

Alfonso Rodriguez should never have been released. This jerk should not have been acquitted the first time he tried to kidnap someone. I am sick that good families have to fear for the safety of their loved ones.

Amen Idaho! :clap: I think this is a much worthier platform I would like to see being addressed by our political parties. There isn't another issue that I consider to be anywhere close to the importance of keeping our children safe and keeping those who are compelled to harm them locked away.

Bean

 

[Ghostwheel]

I just watched the video several times and I can't believe that Carlie doesn't appear to put up any sort of fight...she just seems to willingly go with the creep.
:banghead:

Didn't look willing to me. Looked more like:
A: He told her she was trespassing on the car wash lot, and he'd have to come with him (He was wearing a uniform). He grabbed her wrist and she was confused as to what to do.

B:He was pulling her fast enought that she couldn't get any bearings to fight. Have someone pull on your arm so you are leaning forward, and try to get any "bite" out of your legs to hold you back, or even twist your wrist to escape. It's tough (though not impossible-my seven year old would give anyone a run for their money. Got to love those Karate/self defense classes)

 

[Jovin]

you go, girl! You rock! (You also get the idea by now of what I'm trying to say, right?)

I give you the biggest pat on the back and thumbs up that ever was! BTW, did you actually, LITERALLY do the soap in the mouth thing? I doubt it, but just the mention of that old time threat actually taking place made me roar! What a great remedy, and OH, don't you wish you could apply this to all those foul-mouthed entertainers and actors that "grace" our screens, both big and small?

YOU RULE, BEAN!!

 

[partyuv5]

Honest to God, my mom did the soap in the mouth! I was 14 then but now at 35, my mom and I are best friends. I have so much to say but I broke my right elbow skating with the kids last week and typing takes forever.

 

[Doyle]

a place for updates.

The other threads were getting too large.

 

[Doyle]

This is the thread for discussions on Karlie.

 

[Doyle]

The video of a man who approached 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in a carwash parking lot led to the arrest of Joseph Smith, according to a woman who lives with him.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/02/05/missing.girl/index.html

 

[Doyle]

Ron and Linda Thompson, neighbors of the suspect, described the man they knew to CNN's Paula Zahn Thursday
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/02/05/cnna.suspect.neighbors.zahn/index.html

 

[poco]

2/6/04, 5 a.m. EST, CNN, nothing new on case. Subject still refusing to speak.

 

[poco]

2/6/04, 6:30 a.m. body found believed to be that of Carlie behind a church in Sarasota area. Parents have been notified.

News conference, I believe at 9:00 a.m. EST.

 

[Jovin]

Reporting now...that they have been at the scene for hours...family notified and it was found behind a church off of Interstate 75

God be with this poor little girl's spirit and with her family.

 

[poco]

I believe they have just confirmed that it is her body!!

THAT SORRY SOB!!!!

 

[angelmom]

Reporting now...that they have been at the scene for hours...family notified and it was found behind a church off of Interstate 75

God be with this poor little girl's spirit and with her family.

I can't believe this. I am so sick and sad - I just keep seeing her mother in my mind over and over again, begging for her baby back.

I hope they get the right guy and nail him good.