A Juror Speaks

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Thomas W. Krause

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 02:57 PM

2:45 p.m. I know I wrote that the final post to the blog was complete.

One additional item has come up.

I just spoke at length with one of the jurors, Karen Dill.

Dill described a jury that was thoughtful, hardworking and extremely conscientious over 13 hours of deliberation spread over two days.

Fairly early in the deliberations, Dill said, all the jurors seemed to agree that Onstott killed Sarah Michelle Lunde. Their next task was more important: to determine if the evidence proved that he did.

“We all said we’re here for a reason,” Dill said. “We chose to enter this trial with a fair mind.”

The jurors often referred to the jury instructions handed to them by Judge Ronald Ficarrotta.

They paid close attention to them and read them “over and over and over again,” Dill said.

They paid especially close attention to the words “credible evidence” and “reasonable doubt.”

“We had to discuss what was there and what wasn’t there,” she said.

The key piece of evidence, Dill said, was the recording of Onstott speaking to his mother. The recording was about 1 1/2 hours long. The jurors took five hours to listen to it.

“We stopped, we replayed, we discussed, we re-listened,” Dill said. “We tried to discuss what it was and what it meant.”

The jurors were handed a transcript in court to help them follow along. The judge told them it was only a guide and the recording – not the transcript – was the evidence. Dill said the transcript was not entirely accurate and the jurors did not pay attention to it.

One of the points of contention among the attorneys in the courtroom was a section of the tape where Onstott leans in to speak to his mother. Prosecutors contend he said: “Because I killed her.”

Defense attorneys argued that the tape was too muffled to make out what he said.

Dill said some of the jurors, when they first listened, agreed with prosecutors. When they listened to it several times, however, they agreed not to consider it in their deliberations.

As a group, they decided they would not give credence to anything unless they were sure they could make it out entirely.

“We heard what he said,” Dill said. “He did not say that. He said: ‘Because I feel it.’ ”

Eventually, the jurors all agreed that the totality of evidence did prove that Onstott killed Sarah. Almost immediately, Dill said, they agreed it was not premeditated murder.

“We could not agree there was enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that it was first degree,” she said. “We also threw out manslaughter right away.”

Eventually, all agreed that Onstott committed second-degree murder, meaning he acted with a depraved mind but not premeditation.

“We were able to gather enough information that we were all able to agree with what we had beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.

Dill said jurors also paid little attention to a portion of the evidence where Onstott tells his former wife that he has broken every one of the Ten Commandments.

She said the jurors thought the statements almost showed Onstott’s human side – as if he were expressing remorse.

Ultimately, however, they could not agree whether Onstott was talking about killing, as was the prosecution’s theory, or committing adultery, as the defense argued.

Finally, all the jurors determined there was not enough evidence to prove the charge of attempted sexual battery – although most thought he did, Dill said.

Dill said the jurors were surprised when they were allowed to go home Wednesday night and return Thursday morning. She said it allowed them all to rest and gather their thoughts.

“The deliberation was very difficult,” she said. “When we went home, there were people on both sides and a lot of people in between. We really had to deliberate over a lot of issues.”

After their service was done, Dill said, she wanted to know more about the case. She was not allowed to watch or listen to any news for the past two weeks. She said she took that instruction very seriously.

“Last night, when it was all said and done, I sat at my computer because I really wanted to know,” she said.

She watched an interview with Sarah’s mom, Kelly May.

In court, Dill said, May showed no emotion. Some jurors commented about whether or not May was an attentive mother, although all the jurors agreed it had no bearing on the case, Dill said.

When Dill saw May on television, she was relieved.

“I was heartened to hear that she had a heart and a reaction and it was in the right place,” Dill said.

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Aftermath

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Thomas W. Krause

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 01:36 PM

11:10 a.m. In court, it was difficult to make out what Onstott said before sentencing.

With a little help from our television friends, I just listened again.

Onstott thanked his friends and family for standing by him and said he was sorry for the pain he caused them.

Then, he turned to Sarah’s mother.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sure she don’t want to hear it, Kelly, you know, my condolences,” Onstott said. “I’m sorry.”

Kelly shot back.

“No you’re not,” she said.

Barring a successful appeal, Onstott will die in prison. In Florida, there is no parole.

After Ficarrotta pronounced sentence, Kelly May walked outside to a throng of reporters.

“He’s a piece of crap off the streets,” she said. “Everyone should sleep a little easier.”

She said she was glad the judge released Onstott’s previously suppressed statement to sheriff’s deputies. She wants everyone to hear it.

“Just because the jurors weren’t allowed to hear it doesn’t mean it does not exist,” she said.

State Attorney Mark Ober said he was satisfied with the verdict and sentence, even though his attorneys had pushed for a first-degree murder conviction.

“We had many hurdles in this case,” he said. “But we were confident as we proceeded with this case.”

Asked if he was confident in Onstott’s guilt or confident he could get a conviction, Ober was quick with an answer.

“I knew he did it,” Ober said.

He added that he was confident in his prosecutors’ ability to present the evidence they did have.

Regarding the thrown-out statement and the detectives’ miscues, Ober was conciliatory. He said attorneys can sit in “high-backed chairs” and point out mistakes made in the heat of interrogation.

“We learn,” he said. “Sometimes we learn from our mistakes.”

Thursday, Ober said, he sat down with Sheriff David Gee, as he has done several times during this long case. He told Gee that he was unsatisfied with the quality of the tape recordings.

But in the end, Ober said, justice was served. When Onstott told Kelly May that he was sorry, Ober said, it helps prove the right verdict was reached.

“Perhaps what he said today was an admission,” Ober said. “It seems to me, his apology is another admission of guilt.”

This concludes the live coverage of the David Lee Onstott trial.

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Life in Prison

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Thomas W. Krause

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 10:16 AM

10:10 a.m. Ficarrotta does not mince words with Onstott.

“By your own words, you are a danger to this community,” Ficarrotta says. “You are a volcano.”

Ficarrotta says Onstott’s conduct went way beyond making a mistake, as Skye had said.

“You deserve the maximum punishment that I can give you,” Ficarrotta says.

He sentences Onstott to life in prison.

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Don’t Throw Him Away

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Thomas W. Krause

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 10:14 AM

10:10 a.m. Assistant Public Defender John Skye tells the judge that Onstott has four children and a good construction job.

He is intelligent but has made mistakes, Skye says.

“I’ve never lost a child and can’t imagine the horror and the agony of losing a child,” Skye says.

Regardless, Skye says, he wants to judge to move forward, not move backward.

“I would ask you to look forward, quite frankly, I would ask you not to throw David Onstott away,” Skye says.

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Mom Asks the Judge to Sentence Onstott to Life

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Thomas W. Krause

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 10:13 AM

10:05 p.m. The judge says Onstott is going to be sentenced on a number of charges.

Onstott will be sentenced for second-degree murder, battery and a previous charge of failure of a sex offender to register.

Kelly May addresses the judge.

Each time Onstott gets arrested but not convicted of a crime, he commits something more heinous, she tells the judge. She says she is certain, if he gets out of prison, he will do this again.

Rusty Morgan, May’s fiance, says if Onstott is not sentences to life in prison, he will take someone else, maybe your child, maybe your neighbor’s.

With Onstott’s prior conviction for sexual battery, the guideline sentence is a minimum 60 years in prison, prosecutors say. Based upon the nature of this charge, they ask for life in prison.

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