The prints on a glass table and other items could prove that John Evander Couey, 46, held the third-grader captive for several hours to several days in one bedroom of a ramshackle trailer 150 yards from her home, officials say.

The evidence may help bolster the state's charges against Couey - a case in which questions about his right to a lawyer could jeopardize the statement investigators say he twice gave them in March.

Jessie's father, Mark, and his attorney, Herb Cohen, of Fort Lauderdale, are among those who earlier said investigators may have bungled the case because they didn't give Couey a lawyer when he asked for one during his first interview March 17 in an Augusta, Ga., jail.

``I'm just ... I want a lawyer, you know,'' Couey told Citrus County sheriff's investigators Gary Atchison and Scott Grace when they asked whether he would take a polygraph test. The statements are in transcripts released by prosecutors last month.

He reiterated the request six times without getting a lawyer but the next day told a magistrate he didn't need one.

Later that day, he took a polygraph, and in two subsequent interviews, investigators say, he said he snatched Jessie from her bedroom, raped her and buried her alive in two black plastic trash bags.

Cohen said Monday that he remains concerned that Couey was not given a lawyer when he first asked, but he added his waiving of one later may mitigate those worries.

After speaking with the state attorney's office and reading Couey's statements, Cohen said, ``My hope is that ... a judge will admit [the confession]. There's enough evidence that I think that's possible.''

Asked whether his case would be damaged if the statement was ruled inadmissible, Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said: ``Anything is conceivable. Whenever a defendant gives a confession, the possibility of suppression is something that any competent prosecutor would worry about.''

Magrino, who worked as a South Florida police officer before becoming a prosecutor, wouldn't fault Atchison and Grace for their police work.

Magrino said that even without the statement, his office will prosecute Couey on charges of kidnapping, sexual battery on a child under 12, first-degree murder and burglary with battery.

Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if Couey is convicted on the murder charge.

Circuit Judge Ric Howard, who is assigned to the case, and possibly an appeals court will make the decision on the expected motion to suppress the statement from Couey's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Dan Lewan, who has refused to comment since being assigned the case.

Another issue is Jessie's time of death and whether she was alive shortly after her abduction, when investigators came to the trailer where Couey lived with his half sister and three other adults.

Prosecutors say she was killed within hours of her abduction, adding there is no physical evidence she lived for days in a closet at Couey's home. But Couey, admittedly in a drug funk at the time of the abduction, said he kept her alive for two to six days, including a day when searchers first queried his roommates about the girl's disappearance, officials say.

Magrino and Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway say there is no physical evidence she was in the trailer for more than a few hours, and they rebut Couey's statements that he fed her, citing an autopsy report that shows no food in her stomach and intestines.

Her time of death could determine whether investigators blew a chance to save the girl when they questioned Couey's half sister and other adults with whom he lived, officials say. Sheriff's deputies charged the adults with misdemeanor obstruction for not telling them Couey was in the trailer at the time. However, prosecutors said they had no law under which to charge them.

Searchers found her grave behind the trailer March 18, 22 days after her father, Mark, discovered she was missing.

An autopsy determined she suffocated.

Couey has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have released nearly 3,000 pages of evidence in the case. A toxicology report that could determine whether the girl was drugged hasn't been released.

Couey is not expected to be tried until spring or summer.

Reporter Jim Tunstall can be reached at (352) 628-5558.