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Thread: Steven Joseph Lorenzo - Florida Death Row

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    Steven Joseph Lorenzo - Florida Death Row






    Steven Lorenzo


    Steven Lorenzo in court on December 6, 2022


    Families demand convictions in 2003 torture killings

    Also see Murder Homes

    TAMPA — Ten years ago, two 26-year-old men vanished.

    Weeks later, Michael Wachholtz's body was found decaying in the back of his SUV parked in a Town 'N Country apartment complex. The remains of Jason Galehouse were never found.

    Tampa police think both men were lured on successive nights from a gay nightclub to a Seminole Heights bungalow, where they were drugged and eventually met gruesome deaths. Investigators said the bungalow owner, Steven Lorenzo, and another man, Scott Schweickert, sexually tortured both men to death before they dismembered Galehouse, dumped his body parts around the city and left Wacholtz dead in his Jeep.

    Police said Lorenzo and Schweickert were kindred spirits in an underground sadomasochistic subculture. They had plenty of evidence to support their theory: In Lorenzo's house, they found records of explicit Internet chats between the two men, copies of newspaper clippings about the murders and, chillingly, photos of Wachholtz in the home's bathtub. He appeared to be dead in the pictures; the photos showed someone had arranged his body in several different poses.

    But though this month marks the 10-year anniversary of when Wachholtz and Galehouse disappeared from the nightclub, neither of the two men that police think killed them has been brought to trial on murder charges. Both are in prison, but on federal drug and conspiracy charges. Lorenzo is serving a 200-year sentence; Schweickert a 40-year sentence.

    In September 2012, nearly nine years after the killings, Schweickert was indicted for murder. Two months ago, the prosecution filed notice with the court that the state intends to seek the death penalty. Investigators told Galehouse's mother that Lorenzo would be charged after Schweickert's case was done.

    But 15 months after Schweickert was charged in Hillsborough County, he has yet to be arraigned. He remains in federal prison in Tuscon, Ariz. Lorenzo still has not been charged with murder.

    “I'm getting antsy,” said Galehouse's mother, Pam Williams, who lives in Sarasota. “It's just hard. The whole Christmas thing is hard for me. It's just hard getting through it. I don't have him and it's lonely. And it gets worse. Every year it just gets worse, especially since this trial has not come to fruition yet.”

    “It's hard to believe that Michael has been gone that long,” said Wachholtz's mother, Ruth. “I miss him every day, I talk to him every day, and I see his picture whenever I walk in the front door, so he's always there. He's also always in my heart so I'm comfortable with that. I haven't heard anything as far as any kind of progress with either case.”

    When Galehouse and Wachholtz disappeared, their names were added to a burgeoning list of young gay men who had gone missing in the Tampa area and beyond.

    There were candlelight vigils, as people demanded answers and Tampa area gay men worried they might be in danger.

    Equality Florida organized a forum in January 2004 where gay people could air their concerns to law enforcement.

    Some men who had been drugged and tortured by Lorenzo had been turned away by police because they couldn't remember what happened, said Brian Winfield, the managing director of Equality Florida. Winfield has been active in galvanizing the Tampa area's gay population over the cases for the past decade.

    Winfield said there were rooms during the forum where people could talk individually to detectives. Several mentioned the name of Lorenzo, who was well known in the community.

    Months later, Lorenzo, was arrested on federal drug charges. Authorities said he had drugged and sexually tortured six men. That number would eventually grow to nine.

    Investigators searched Lorenzo's bungalow home on Powhatan Avenue. They uncovered a trove of evidence, including hundreds of Internet chats using AOL instant messaging. There were photographs of naked men bound and tortured; some wore gas masks; one was wrapped head-to-toe in duct tape.

    There was a book,“Murderers Among Us,” and an envelope with newspaper stories about Wachholtz and Galehouse and other missing people.

    As investigators searched through the pictures, they found images of Wachholtz inside Lorenzo's home. He was naked and apparently dead. His body was contorted into a bizarre pose. In other pictures, he was draped in Lorenzo's bathtub.

    Authorities also searched for evidence linking Lorenzo to the disappearances of other gay men in the Tampa area as well as Fort Lauderdale and Chicago.

    Lorenzo was indicted on federal drug charges in November 2004. The same day, authorities searched Scott Schweickert's Chicago-area home. Detectives had evidence Lorenzo and Schweickert had talked online about torturing unsuspecting men and making them vanish.

    Lorenzo and Schweickert, who lived in Orlando at the time of the killings, had been introduced to each other by a fellow traveler in Pennsylvania who said he worked both as a physician and a funeral home director. “How convenient,” Lorenzo wrote to the man identified in chats as LimitXpander.

    “My name is Scott,” Schweickert wrote in his first email to Lorenzo — or, as they were known online, MstrScott and DomDudeForSub — “and I believe you had talked with LimitXpander here on AOL. He had suggested I contact you regarding a particular boy from the Tampa area called Johnny Torture or fieldslave2. I would definitely like to discuss this boy and the possibilities of what might be done with him if you have the time.”

    That email was sent in October 2003, less than three months before Wachholtz and Galehouse were killed.

    Lorenzo and Schweickert chatted online about finding both willing and unsuspecting men and making them disappear after torturing them.

    And the timing of Galehouse and Wachholtz's killings, days before Christmas, may have been intentional, as was the annual suffering endured by their families.

    In one online conversation, Schweickert wrote, “Taking someone just before xmas is ideal tho.”

    Lorenzo responded, “Why? Think it plays their minds more?”

    “Absolutely,” Schweickert wrote. “Knowing the entire family is together and he will never be with them again.”

    “Man you are sadistic,” Lorenzo wrote. “I would do the same.”

    The two had numerous chats in the weeks before Galehouse and Wachholtz disappeared. In the days afterward, they talked about evidence in a conversation in which they appeared to agree that the cloth seats in Wachholtz's car meant no fingerprints would be found.

    After Lorenzo was identified as a suspect, he steadfastly denied any involvement in the killings, saying his online chats were merely fantasy.

    But when shown pictures of Wachholtz — who appeared to be dead at the time — being posed in his bathtub, Lorenzo acknowledged his hand was in one of the photographs.

    Schweickert gave a detailed description of the killings and the dismemberment and disposal of Galehouse's body. Investigators later found Galehouse's DNA in blood on the floor of Lorenzo's garage, where Schweickert said Galehouse had been dismembered.

    When the sentencing hearings were held for Lorenzo and Schweickert on the drug and conspiracy charges, judges called on local authorities to bring murder charges.

    Authorities are “working diligently” to bring Schweickert to Tampa to face trial, said Mark Cox, spokesman for Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober.

    One factor that may be delaying the transfer of Schweickert from federal to state custody is that the charges against him carry a possible death sentence.

    Connecticut lawyer Todd Bussert said when federal prisoners are transferred to state custody, there are a slew of issues, some involving the fact that the federal government maintains primary custody and would expect to have the inmate returned.

    That prospect would be diminished with the potential of a death sentence.

    “I've been doing this for 16-plus years, I've never heard of (the Bureau of Prisons) refusing to grant a writ” to turn an inmate over for prosecution by state authorities, said Bussert, who used to co-chair the American Bar Association's Correction and Sentencing Committee. “There may be general safety and security issues with respect to him.''

    For Winfield, the people who were touched by the brutal killings deserve better.

    If Ober can't move the cases forward, Winfield said, “then we need him to make it clear who does have the power to get this moving. ... The simple status quo of it just remaining unresolved is just not acceptable to us as an organization, to the community and especially, it's unacceptable to the families.”

    Though Lorenzo and Schweickert are in prison, they still have not been held accountable by the state of Florida for killing Wachholtz and Galehouse, Winfield said.

    “They have never been held responsible for the brutality, for the physical harm and murder of Jason and Michael. And that's what really keeps things unresolved for the families.”

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/families-d...ings-20131221/
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    Defendant in 2003 torture killings brought to Tampa to face trial

    By Patty Ryan
    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — Two young men vanished in December 2003, each after visiting a nightclub.

    Mothers mourned. A brother raged. Jurors saw pictures of men bound and naked, eyes shut, in a Seminole Heights bungalow and heard testimony of sex and torture. Two defendants went to federal prison — on drug charges, not murder charges.

    This week, a crack opened on the past and out fell federal inmate Scott Paul Schweickert, 48, who arrived at 9:39 p.m. Thursday at the Hillsborough County Jail to the prospect of a murder trial in state court.

    A 2012 Hillsborough County grand jury indictment accuses him of first-degree murder in the deaths of Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse, both 26. The state filed notice that it intends to seek the death penalty.

    Schweickert long ago implicated another man, Steven Lorenzo, in the killings.

    In a recorded conversation with investigators, Schweickert said the two met Galehouse at 2606, a gay nightclub on Armenia Avenue, and brought him back to the bungalow for sex.

    Schweickert said he came out of a bathroom to find Lorenzo with Galehouse's lifeless body, which they dismembered with a power tool and scattered around town in garbage bins. The body parts of the interior design student were not found, but his blood was left on concrete in Lorenzo's garage, according to testimony.

    The next night they brought home Wachholtz, who Schweickert said died after a few minutes of rough sex.

    Lorenzo, 55, is serving a 200-year sentence in federal prison for giving nine men, including Wachholtz and Galehouse, the "date rape" drug GHB with the intent to commit violence, and for conspiring with Schweickert to distribute the drug.

    Schweickert, convicted of giving the drug to Wachholtz, is serving a 40-year term.

    Hillsborough State Attorney's Office spokesman Mark Cox declined to discuss the case because it is pending.

    Court records show that Assistant State Attorney Mike Sinacore has been trying for three months to get custody of Schweickert from the federal Bureau of Prisons.

    News researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...-trial/2180133
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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    Scott Schweickert pleads guilty to two counts of first degree murder

    By Carson Chambers
    ABC Action News

    "Schweickert, I want you to take a look at this picture. You take a good look at his picture.I look at it every single day,” said mother Pam Williams.

    Mom Pam Williams is five foot nothing.

    "I hope you remember this because you're going to burn in hell for this,” she said.

    On Wednesday in a Tampa courtroom she stood 10 feet tall.

    "I don't have a grave, a body or a tombstone. I have the city dump with my son ground up like hamburger meat in the dirt,” she said addressing the man who pleaded guilty to murdering her son.

    Scott Schweickert plead guilty to two counts of first degree murder for killing 26-year-old Jason Galehouse and another man, Michael Wachholtz. Schweickert says he and a friend, Steve Lorenzo, tortured, drugged, raped and murdered the men after leaving a Tampa nightclub on two separate occasions in December of 2003.

    "Steven Lorenzo and you, developed a plan to meet single, gay men, take them to Steven Lorenzo's Tampa home and make them permanent slaves?” a judge asked.

    “Yes," he replied.

    Sex slaves Schweickert admits they'd either trade or kill when they tired of them.

    The details made even the most experienced defense attorneys cringe.

    "I've done almost two hundred first degree murder cases so a lot of gruesome murder cases. All the facts taken together make it one of the most horrible cases I've ever dealt with,” said his defense attorney Byron Hileman.

    When the Schweickert and Lorenzo grew tired of the slaves the defendant says they killed them cut them up with an electric saw in a garage and scattered body parts in various Tampa trash bins.

    "After almost 14 years of having to go through waiting for this trial, which I shouldn't have had to done, it should've been done a lot sooner than 14 years,” said Williams.

    Lorenzo, who's already in federal prison for drugging victims could be indicted by a grand jury for the murders.

    Schweickert intends to testify against him, blaming him for the actual killings according to the state.

    "There won't be justice until we get Lorenzo-- that's the ultimate goal,” said a friend, Tyler.

    http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/re...-degree-murder
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Steven Lorenzo appears in Tampa court, 13 years after torture murders

    By Dan Sullivan
    Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — He's accused in the sadistic murders of two men more than a decade ago. Last week, he was brought back to Hillsborough County to face trial. He faces the death penalty.

    None of that appeared to matter much to Steven Lorenzo when he appeared in court Wednesday morning.

    He told a judge he doesn't want a lawyer, that the court was "a fiction," and that he had already "settled" his case.

    "I am a sovereign man," Lorenzo declared. "I am not a public figure."

    The 58-year-old convict, one of the most notorious criminals in Tampa Bay history, appeared to invoke a defense rooted in the so-called sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents shun the legitimacy of government and established laws.

    In keeping with the sovereign philosophy, he refused to let jail deputies take his mug shot when he arrived last week, Hillsborough sheriff's officials said.

    "I guess he's decided he's now a sovereign citizen and wants to behave like one," said Col. Kenneth Davis, who oversees Hillsborough County's jail operations.

    In court, Lorenzo couldn't avoid the photographers. His hair had grayed since his image last appeared publicly 10 years ago.

    He gazed at spectators through bold-framed glasses while awaiting his arraignment on charges that he killed Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz in December 2003.

    Speaking in a heavy New York accent, Lorenzo insisted he did not want help from a public defender.

    That prompted Circuit Judge Mark Kiser to read him a lengthy series of questions to determine if he understood what he was doing.

    "It's almost always unwise to represent yourself in court," the judge said. Lorenzo remained adamant that he did not want legal assistance.

    "This is a fiction, corporate court," he said. "I am not a corporate person. I am a living, breathing being."

    He said again he did not want an attorney. He also refused to enter a plea.

    "I will not plea," he said. "I'm here to settle. I'm not here to plea."

    Kiser entered two not guilty pleas on his behalf.

    J.J. MacNab, a national expert on anti-government extremism, said it is possible Lorenzo picked up his sovereign beliefs in prison. The movement has a sizable following among the incarcerated.

    "A lot of people who try to pull this defense see it as a get-out-of-jail free card," MacNab said. Typically such tactics anger judges, she said, and result in a psychological evaluation.

    "It has never worked for anyone in any court ever," MacNab said. "I think it's part of the idea that if you don't have the facts and the law on your side, you pound the table. It's a Hail Mary."

    Because of his refusal to be photographed, Lorenzo has been held in "administrative confinement" since his return to Hillsborough from an Indiana federal prison.

    That means he is barred from most inmate privileges, like making phone calls and buying candy and food at the jail canteen. Instead, he sits by himself in a cell for 23 hours a day.

    Ordinarily, jail staff would force an inmate to sit for a mug shot, Davis said. But since Lorenzo isn't going anywhere, they say it's not worth fighting him.

    "Once he decides he wants candy bars, he'll let us take his picture," Davis said.

    Lorenzo was convicted in federal court in 2005 on nine counts of administering GHB, a date rape drug, and one count of conspiring with another man charged in the crimes, Scott Schweickert.

    Schweickert told investigators he helped lure Galehouse and Wachholtz separately to Lorenzo's home in Seminole Heights, where they were sexually tortured and killed.

    He said he helped Lorenzo dismember Galehouse's body with an electric saw and dispose of it in trash bins throughout the city. Wachholtz' body was found in his abandoned Jeep in an apartment complex.

    The case received widespread attention at the time, with speculation that other gay men may have been victimized.

    Lorenzo was sentenced to 200 years in federal prison. Schweickert was convicted of similar offenses and got 40 years.

    Last year, Schweickert pleaded guilty to murder charges and agreed to testify against Lorenzo in exchange for a life sentence.

    Lorenzo's next court hearing is set for Oct. 30.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...urders/2338959
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Steven Lorenzo claims rights are being violated

    By Gloria Gomez
    fox13news.com

    TAMPA (FOX 13) - Notorious murder defendant Steven Lorenzo claims his rights and protections under the law are being violated.

    In a hearing on Thursday, Lorenzo was combative and challenged the charges against him.

    "The state of Florida, with no lawful excuse or delay, waited over a dozen years before they felt ready to file their federal complaint," he told a judge.

    Lorenzo is representing himself on the murders of Michael Waccholtz and Jason Galehouse. Both men disappeared from a gay bar in 2003.

    Prosecutors say Lorenzo and his co-conspirator, Scott Schweickert lured the victims to Lorenzo's Seminole Heights home.

    There, they say the men were used as sex slaves - tortured, drugged, and murdered.

    Lorenzo and Schweickert were both convicted on federal drug charges.

    And now Lorenzo argues, in a handwritten motion, the charges amount to double jeopardy and should be dismissed.

    Hillsborough Circuit Judge Mark Kiser disagreed.

    "The federal charges that Mr. Lorenzo was convicted of were not for murder and therefore are a different charge," said Judge Kiser.

    Lorenzo then spent seven minutes reading a list of complaints, during which he challenged the judge's authority over the case.

    "I ask this honorable court to cease any further attempts to pressure, intimidate, discourage the defense from taking the necessary time to pursue its due process," said Lorenzo.

    Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren watched all of it from the gallery.

    "Mr. Lorezno claims he is not receiving any justice. Ask and you shall receive; his justice is coming. Justice for Michael Waccholtz and justice for Jason Galehouse," said Warren.

    A trial date has been set for March of 2019.

    http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-...being-violated

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    January 29, 2021

    Despite heated hearing, trial for accused double-murderer Steven Lorenzo set for April

    By Gloria Gomez
    fox13news.com

    TAMPA, Fla. - Accusations of dirty tricks by prosecutors took center stage during a fiery hearing for notorious murder defendant Steven Lorenzo.

    Lorenzo, who is acting as his own attorney accused prosecutors of hiding evidence, while providing him with stuff he didn't need.

    "Most of it is absolutely nothing," argued Lorenzo.

    He is now demanding his trial be delayed. But Jay Pruner, Hillsborough County prosecutor, said this is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

    "Suggesting that the state is sitting on all this evidence that’s going to set him free or help his defense; he hasn't pointed to one single thing that he's seen at this point is material," Pruner fired back.

    Lorenzo is accused of the gruesome murders of Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz in 2003.

    Prosecutors say Lorenzo and co-defendant Scott Schweickert targeted gay bars and lured the men into Lorenzo's Seminole Heights home. There, they say, the victims were drugged, tortured and killed.

    Schweickert cut a deal with the state and pleaded guilty to murder charges in exchange for life and prison and testifying against Lorenzo.

    CD's from Schweickert's personal computer was at the center of Friday's hearing. Lorenzo says he's entitled to that evidence.

    "If I find something in that computer that I can use against my Schweickert then I have a right to see it," argued Lorenzo.

    "If I don't see the stuff that’s on here I'm going to claim a due process violation. Sorry, that’s just the way it is," threatened Lorenzo.

    Lorenzo's trial is set for April 5, 2021. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/despi...-set-for-april
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Feds will not seek death penalty for ex-Lewisburg inmate charged with killing cellmate

    WILLIAMSPORT – The Justice Department has decided not to seek the death penalty for a convicted bank robber from Texas accused of killing his Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary cellmate.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. O’Hara in the notice filed Friday in U.S. Middle District Court did not give a reason for the decision.

    Lorenzo Scott, 48, had been told he could face the death penalty if convicted of causing the death of Larry McCoullum.

    He was indicted in March 2020 on charges of murder, assault with intent to commit murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. A corrections officer on March 25, 2015, while conducting a routine tour in the special management unit (SMU), found Scott stomping on the head and chest of McCoullum who was on the cell floor.

    McCoullum was transported unresponsive to Geisinger Medical Center near Danville. He later was transferred to the medical center at the federal prison complex in Butner, N.C., where he remained in a vegetative state until he died May 21, 2017.

    When questioned about the assault, Scott is alleged to have admitted he intended to kill his cellmate.

    Scott was serving a 14-year, 3-month sentence for robbing with another man a bank in Richardson, Texas, on July 31, 2006.

    According to a U.S. attorney’s office news release, the two entered the bank wearing security-type uniforms and brandishing firearms, ordered everyone to lie on the floor and directed three tellers to place currency into a plastic shopping bag.

    Scott had pleaded guilty to bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

    In the current case, the defense believes the violence and conditions at Lewisburg were a contributing factor in McCoullum’s death, assistant public defender Thomas A. Thornton said.

    He makes reference to a 10-year-old still active federal civil suit brought by former Lewisburg inmate Sebastian Richardson that details his experiences with corrections officers and living 23 hours a day with another inmate in a cell built for one.

    In 2015 Lewisburg double-celled most prisoners in cells as small as 6-by-10 feet, Thornton claimed.

    “The cells had originally been built for just one person but apparently, SMU inmates were doubled up to teach them to successfully co-exist and to alleviate overcrowding in BOP facilities,” he opined.

    Thornton also cited a 2015 report by the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council that stated excessive force by the corrections officers was a major complaint of SMU inmates.

    In 2014 and 2015 at least 19 SMU prisoners were treated for injuries such as a collapsed lung, a broken rib, multiple stab wounds and head injuries, he said records showed.

    According to information revealed by the government, both Scott and McCoullum had substantial mental health and disciplinary histories along with issues with cellmates, he said.

    “Despite their respective histories, the BOP decided to house them together in a cell designed for one person at USP Lewisburg,” he wrote.

    Scott completed his sentence in the bank robbery case and is detained on the murder charge. His trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 4.

    Lewisburg was a maximum-security SMU facility from 2009 until last year when its classification was changed to medium-security.

    https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/0...-cellmate.html
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    Judge schedules torture-murder suspect's trial despite claim of missing evidence

    By Gloria Gomez
    Fox 13 News

    TAMPA, Fla. - Defiant murder suspect Steven Lorenzo, who is defending himself, says the one piece of evidence that could exonerate him has suddenly disappeared.

    "The one thing that’s huge is gone," Lorenzo complained.

    Lorenzo claims there is surveillance video from a Ross department store that shows one of the murder victims shopping after he was reported missing. But now investigators can’t find it.

    "This is a death penalty case and he lost evidence and that’s important evidence. Exculpatory evidence," argued Lorenzo.

    Prosecutors admit the video is missing and may be lost forever. However, at a virtual hearing today, Hillsborough County circuit judge Christopher Sabella put a positive spin on it.

    "That may ultimately be to your advantage if they lost it. You may not want them to find it," said Sabella.

    Lorenzo is accused of the gruesome murders of Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz in 2003. Prosecutors say Lorenzo and co-defendant Scott Schweickert targeted gay bars and lured the men into Lorenzo's Seminole Heights home, where they say, the men were drugged, tortured, and dismembered.

    In June of 2016, Schweickert took a plea deal in exchange for life in prison and will have to testify against Lorenzo at his trial.

    Jason's mother, Pam Williams, confronted Schweickert at his sentencing.

    "I hope you rot in hell," said the tearful Williams.

    Yet Lorenzo has dragged out his case with one complaint after another and there's no sign he's letting up,

    "I should not have to give up one constitutional right to obtain another one. That’s what I'm being forced to do," claimed Lorenzo.

    Despite Lorenzo's objections, Judge Sabella forged ahead and scheduled a trial date for April of 2022.

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/judge...ssing-evidence
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    April trial date set for man accused of 2003 Tampa double murder

    By Justin Schecker
    WFLA News

    TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Steven Lorenzo is already serving a 200-year prison sentence for federal drug crimes.

    The mother of one of the men he’s accused of murdering says he belongs on death row and the Hillsborough State Attorney’s office has rejected his offer to avoid capital punishment.

    The horrific murders of Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz 18 years ago still haunt Tampa’s gay community.

    “Absolutely,” said Galehouse’s friend Tyler Bulter. “It still makes you think when you go out who’s sitting beside you? Who is that other person?”

    On back-to-back nights in 2003, both men vanished after visiting the same Tampa nightclub.

    Prosecutors say Steven Lorenzo and his partner Scott Schweikert plotted together to drug, sexually torture and murder Galehouse and Wachholtz at Lorenzo’s home in Seminole Heights.

    “I miss you know happy Mother’s Day, happy birthday mom, Merry Christmas mom,” Galehouse’s mother Pam Williams said, “just his smile and his laughter and hearing his beautiful singing voice and his charisma.”

    Schweikert took a plea deal in 2016 in exchange for life in prison, but Lorenzo has yet to stand trial for the pre-meditated murder of Williams’ only son.

    “I’m sick and tired of him getting his way,” she said of the delays in this nearly two-decades-old case.

    On Thursday, prosecutors called Williams and Butler to update them on preparations for Lorenzo’s trial that is finally set to begin this spring.

    “If one out of the jury of the 12 finds him not guilty, he won’t get the death penalty,” Williams said the prosecutors told her during the call. “I do not like that. I told them flat out I want the death penalty and they said they understood, but it just all depends and I’m sorry I think the justice system stinks.”

    Lorenzo is representing himself. State Attorney Andrew Warren told News Channel 8 he’s rejecting his offer to stay off death row.

    “Steven Lorenzo committed two shockingly horrific murders for which he deserves the death penalty,” Warren said. “His request that we allowed him to plea no contest and allow him to take no responsibility for his crimes is absurd and not worth the paper it was written on.”

    Even though the kidnappings and murders took place in December 2003, Lorenzo was not indicted on the murder charges until June 2016.”

    “No family should have to wait 18 years to get justice when their loved ones been murdered,” Warren said, “I can’t talk about all the reasons it took years for this case to be charged, but since I’ve been in the state attorney’s office we’ve been preparing to go trial from day one.”

    After all these years, Williams said “you can never get over it.”

    But the wait for justice may soon finally be over in two of Tampa’s most heinous murders. The trial of Steven Lorenzo is scheduled to begin with jury selection the first week in April.

    “It’s aggravating,” Butler said. “I would never have thought 18 years we’re still asking for justice, 18 years.”

    https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborou...rder-in-tampa/


    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #10
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    Steven Lorenzo still facing death penalty after failed attempt at plea deal

    At a virtual court hearing Friday, prosecutors announced they will pass on a plea deal offer from double-murder defendant Steven Lorenzo.

    The rejection seemed to hit a nerve with Lorenzo, saying he had already decided to withdraw the offer, anyway.

    "I was going to tell the state I'm withdrawing my offer to settle," said a defiant Lorenzo.

    After nearly 20 years of legal wrangling, Lorenzo is defending himself as his trial approaches. Steven Lorenzo plea deal rejected, murder trial to proceed

    When notorious murder defendant Steven Lorenzo made a last-ditch effort to save his life by offering to plead no contest in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, Hillsborough state attorney Andrew Warren says he didn’t have to think about it long.

    Recently, in a 41-page motion, Lorenzo offered to plead "no contest" to 2 murder charges in exchange for the state dropping the death penalty. Now, Lorenzo says he takes it all back.

    "I'm not going to negotiate with the state," Lorenzo told the judge.

    Tampa judge Christopher Sabella gave both parties the bottom line.

    "You won’t take an offer if they gave it. They’re not giving it, so we are going to trial," said Sabella.

    Lorenzo faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the 2003 deaths of Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse.

    Prosecutors say Lorenzo had help. They say he and co-defendant Scott Schweickert drugged the 2 gay men and then sexually tortured them before killing both.

    Several years ago, Schweickert took a plea deal. He got a life sentence in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table.

    Lorenzo was looking to cut the same deal. However, Jason Galehouse's mother, Pam Williams was not in favor of a deal for her son's accused killer.

    "All I know is I want him dead," said Williams.

    Lorenzo agrees to plea deal, but victims' families must approve

    Steven Lorenzo, who is representing himself against 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse, is willing to plead no contest to the crimes in exchange for the death penalty being off the table, according to a 46-page motion.

    The Hillsborough state attorney Andrew Warren said the plea deal was never a consideration.

    "His offer to plead no contest and not take responsibility for his crimes is absurd," said Warren.

    Now, Lorenzo is headed to trial in April with the possibility he could be sentenced to death.

    The next court date is set for 2 weeks.

    (source: Fox News)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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