Carlie Brucia's killer headed back to death row after judge rejects request

Joseph Smith, the man convicted of abducting 11-year-old Carlie Brucia from a Sarasota car wash in 2004, is headed back to death row after a judge rejected his request for a new sentencing.

The abduction was caught on surveillance video from Evie's Car Wash on Bee Ridge Road back on February 1, 2004.  Carlie's body was found a few days later, behind Central Church of Crist on Proctor Road. 

A jury convicted Smith of Carlie's murder and sentenced him to death.

He was removed from death row in 2018, after the state Supreme Court ruled that another man's death sentence in a similar case was unconstitutional.  

The Supreme Court reversed its decision earlier this year. That paved the way for today's ruling, which returns him to death row.

An appeal is expected.