R.I.P

Carlie Brucia

1992-2004

Your light still burns

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Posted on Mon, Aug. 30, 2004 Woman: 'Calm' Smith visited before, after Carlie Brucia abduction MITCH STACY Associated Press SARASOTA, Fla. - Slaying suspect Joseph P. Smith was described as "cool" and "calm" when he visited the home of a woman friend before and after the abduction of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, which was captured on a car wash surveillance camera, according to court documents released Monday.

The woman, Christine Montalvo, told investigators that Smith, 38, visited the home earlier in the afternoon of Feb. 
2, then came back briefly later that night, about two hours after the abduction.

During both visits he was acted normally, "not like anything had happened at all," she said.

Smith is charged with the slaying of 11-year-old Carlie, whose Feb. 2 abduction by a tattooed man in a mechanic's uniform was captured by a car wash surveillance camera at about 6:21 p.m. as she walked home from a friend's house.

Her body was found five days later, hidden in brush near a Sarasota church.

A transcript of the police interview with the woman was among 526 pages of discovery material made public by prosecutors Monday. The material included witness statements, investigative reports and details of the many unfounded tips received by authorities after an Amber Alert was issued for Carlie.

The documents also indicate that a number of people who knew Smith called authorities to identify him as the man on the tape with Carlie. They included a former co-worker who had moved to Las Vegas and saw the video on a national news program.

Montalvo, who said Smith had been working on her cars for about seven years and was going to build a fence at her house, said she also recognized him as the man in the surveillance tape.

She said Smith stayed about an hour when he stopped by at about 3:30 p.m. that Super Bowl Sunday. When he came back that evening, he talked to her 23-year-old son about his car, then left 15 or 20 minutes later.

Jeffrey Pincus, a friend with whom Smith had been living since he separated from his wife, told investigators Smith borrowed his Buick station wagon Sunday and didn't come back until Monday morning, with an extra 382 miles on the odometer. Police also interviewed a witness who reported seeing the Buick on Monday morning in the parking lot of the church where Carlie's body was found.

Smith, an unemployed mechanic with a long criminal history, has been charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted of killing Carlie.

Circuit Judge Andrew Owens had been asked by the attorney for Smith to keep the nearly 2,000 pages of evidence shielded from the public before trial. Typically in Florida, documents in criminal cases become public record when prosecutors have to provide them to the defense.

After reviewing it, Owens ordered that the 526 pages could be made public, some of it redacted to protect the identities of witnesses and other information deemed sensitive.

Smith's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Adam Tebrugge, said he is concerned that pretrial news coverage would make it impossible for Smith to find an impartial jury in Sarasota County.






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