Guilty verdict reached in Onstott trial

Friday, August 22, 2008

Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print

David Lee Onstott stood silently as the verdict was read.

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO
Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A jury has convicted David Lee Onstott of
second-degree murder in the 2005 strangling death of 13-year-old
Sarah Lunde, finding him guilty Thursday on a lesser charge than prosecutors had originally sought.

Jurors entered a packed courtroom early Thursday evening to announce the verdict after deliberating over the course of two days.

No physical or forensic evidence had tied Onstott to the crime.

As the verdict was read, the room remained silent. Along with second-degree murder, Onstott was found guilty of battery, also a lesser charge. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

More Information

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is 25 years, but he could get life behind bars.

Still, Lunde's mother, Kelly May, said she considered the conviction a victory.

"He's gotten what he deserves," she told reporters outside.

Asked what she might tell Onstott, May said, "I hope every day you wake up in the same hell that we go through for the last three years."

Prosecutors said Onstott went to the mobile home where Sarah and her family lived in rural southeastern Hillsborough County in 2005, looking for May. She wasn't home, and her brother had gone out to get food with a friend.

Onstott strangled the teen and left her body in an abandoned fish pond near her home, weighting it down with concrete, prosecutors said.

Her remains were found a week later. An autopsy determined that the teen had died from crushing blows to the head.

There was no physical or forensic evidence linking Onstott to the crime, and a taped conversation he gave investigators wasn't played for the jury because a judge ruled that Onstott hadn't been
given proper access to an attorney.

Prosecutors relied instead on separate conversations Onstott had with his mother, a jail guard, and his ex-wife, during which they
said he made self-incriminating statements.

In the conversation with his mother, prosecutors said Onstott whispered, "I killed her."

But defense attorney John Skye argued that the tape is inaudible and disputed that's what his client said. Skye also said Sarah's brother and his friend - the last people to see her alive - made inconsistent statements.

In his closing arguments earlier this week, Skye had told jurors that thinking Onstott killed Lunde wasn't enough.

"It is not enough to convict Onstott if jurors are thinking, 'He's guilty, but I don't know how he did it,"' Skye said. "If you don't know how he did it, he's not guilty."

Skye left the courtroom quickly after the verdict Thursday and wasn't immediately available for comment.

Prosecutors announced in May that they wouldn't seek the death penalty, but still tried him on first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery charges.

Sarah's disappearance and killing drew national attention, as it followed the high profile rape and slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped and buried alive by a convicted sex
offender in Homosassa, Fla., north of Tampa.

A convicted sex offender, Onstott was found guilty of sexual battery in 1995, but that conviction wasn't revealed to the jury during the trial.

Be in the Know with Bay News 9 Now!

Get news, weather, and traffic alerts delivered directly to your computer desktop, e-mail, or cell phone with Bay News 9 Now.

Subscribe for free!

Valentine's Day

Do you have a romantic Valentine's Day story? Or a funny one? What about a nightmarish one? We want to hear them! Send them to us and we may use them in a story on BayNews9.com.