https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...ow/8092827002/
Joseph Smith, who was convicted of killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in 2004, died in prison at age 55 on Monday, according to the state Attorney General's Office.
The cause of death was unknown. He was 39 when he committed a crime Sarasota may never forget.
Smith was a longstanding member of Florida's death row for the abduction, rape and murder of Brucia. The case made headlines worldwide after he was captured on a car wash camera leading Brucia away by the wrist as 144 million people were watching the Super Bowl on television.
Brucia had been walking down Bee Ridge Road, returning home from a sleepover at a friend's house, when Smith spotted her while driving a borrowed yellow station wagon on Feb. 1, 2004. Brucia's body was found behind the Central Church of Christ on Proctor Road four days after her abduction.
Smith was awaiting a resentencing hearing scheduled for next year, one that could have spared his life, as the Florida Supreme Court recently ruled that juries must be unanimous in sentencing a person to death. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Smith in 2005.
Joe Brucia, Carlie's father, said he learned Smith had died about 9 a.m. Monday morning. He said he felt "elation'' when he heard the news.
"Now Joe's getting the punishment he deserves,'' Brucia said. "He's going to rot in hell.''
Susan Schorpen, Carlie's mother, did not live to see the death of her daughter's killer. Schorpen died in Polk County of a heroin overdose in 2017. She was 47.
"If I could speak to him I'd like to know why he chose my daughter and why he had to kill her,'' Schorpen said after Smith was found guilty. She was also seen screaming at Smith as his transport van pulled out of the courthouse parking garage: "I hope you rot in hell.''
John Smith, Joseph's brother, was a key witness in the trial. It was John Smith and his mother Patricia who led detectives to Brucia's body on Feb. 5, 2004. Joseph was giving John directions from jail over the phone that night.
John Smith, in a detailed interview with the Herald-Tribune for a story last November, said he thinks his brother also killed Tara Reilly in Bradenton four years before he murdered Brucia. Reilly's naked body was found in a retention pond behind a Bradenton Walmart in 2000, a few months after she had allegedly been raped. The Bradenton Police Department began looking into the murder again after the Herald-Tribune report, with Joseph Smith a suspect, but the case remains unsolved.
"I wish he would have been a man and confessed,'' John Smith said Monday. "He never truly confessed, I don't think, about Carlie and he definitely didn't confess about Tara.
"He died a coward, that's all.''
Joseph Smith's 16 years on death row had been relatively comfortable, according to his brother. Joseph Smith had television access, some marriage proposals, and his mother Patricia moved from North Port to Jacksonville to be closer to him. Patricia Smith, who died in 2019, made sure he made commissary money. John Smith said his brother contracted Hepatitis-C years ago from tattoo needles, but did not know if that was related to his death.
"What the corrupt and inept criminal justice system could not do, the natural order of things took care of,'' said Joe Brucia, frustrated and outspoken about the amount of time Smith spent on death row. "Let's face it, the legal system is a system created by attorneys for attorneys. This thing's been dragging on since 2005 and it's an insult to my family and me how it was handled.''
Joseph Smith moved to Sarasota County from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2003. He was an auto mechanic by trade who was married and divorced twice. His three daughters are all college graduates now. Smith, who suffered from back problems much of his life, had a serious drug and pill addiction and had been arrested numerous times, including three times for assaulting women. He only spent time in prison once and was on probation at the time of Brucia's murder, which sparked outrage from then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
Joseph Smith once wrote a 59-chapter book manuscript that he and his mother shopped to publishers serval years ago, but there were no takers. The Herald-Tribune saw several chapters, but there appeared to be no mention of Brucia's murder. Instead, he blamed much of his problems in life on his drug addiction.
Brucia's murder shook Sarasota at the time and crushed Brucia's young friends and classmates. Mothers spoke of being scared to even let their daughters walk alone to the mailbox. Several vigils were held and one of Sarasota's most infamous murders was a nightly topic on national cable shows. A memorial garden was built, and it remains behind the Central Church of Christ. Some of Brucia's ashes are inside a memorial marker at the spot she was found. A family friend drilled a hole in the marker and placed them there.
"While nothing can bring back Carlie, we are grateful that her family, her friends, and the entire Sarasota community will finally have closure and will not have to endure any further court proceedings to bring Smith to justice," State Attorney Ed Brodsky said in a statement.
John Smith said last year he would sometimes have dreams about his brother's death. He envisioned the power going out during the electric chair execution and they had to start over. He also had dreams of the other prisoners beating him to death, and that he was shooting his brother, over and over and over again, only he never died, so he just kept shooting. On Monday, the end of his life came much differently than he envisioned. But it did come to an end.
"I knew he'd take it to the grave,'' John Smith said. "He's a coward.''
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