
Florida man who asked that the judge sentence him to death after he confessed to torturing and killing two gay men in 2003 was given a death sentence on Friday.
"That is the punishment you deserve for these horrific crimes," Judge Christopher Sabella said at the sentencing hearing.
Steven Lorenzo, 63, was convicted on two counts of murder for the killings of Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, both 26.
In December 2003, Lorenzo and Scott Schweickert lured Galehouse and Wachholtz separately to Lorenzo's home in Tampa. Once they arrived, they were killed.
In her opening statements, Hillsborough State Attorney Susan Lopez said Galehouse’s murder was the ”very definition of cold, calculated, and premeditated.”
Schweickert pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in 2016 and agreed to testify against Lorenzo.
In a 147-page letter filed to the court in November, Lorenzo, who represented himself, withdrew his not-guilty plea and requested the death penalty for his crimes, stating that the “comforts they get in death row are a lot more comfortable than it is in the federal system.”
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 24, 2023 11:11 PM |
Did this really take 20 years?
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 24, 2023 10:52 PM |
R1 If you read the article, you'd know
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 24, 2023 10:53 PM |
I must have R1 blocked. But how are they just being sentenced now when this happened 20 years ago. The article doesn't say when he confessed or when he was caught.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 24, 2023 10:55 PM |
Don’t give him the satisfaction of death. Prison is awful. I would have pleaded for life, but it’s Florida.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 24, 2023 11:11 PM |
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