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Onstott Admits Not Registering As Sex Offender

By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 20, 2007

TAMPA - David Lee Onstott, who is awaiting trial on charges he killed a 13-year-old Ruskin girl, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of failing to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.

David Onstott

Onstott, 39, entered the plea "open to the court," meaning he is not under a plea agreement, Assistant State Attorney Megan Newcomb said. He was scheduled to be tried on this charge Monday.

The third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison. Because this case is separate from his first-degree murder case, the plea "really doesn't have an impact on the homicide case," Newcomb said.

Onstott is a registered sex offender because of a 1995 rape conviction. He has been in custody since 2005, when he was indicted in the strangulation of Sarah Michelle Lunde. Onstott had an on-again, off-again relationship with the teenager's mother.

Although authorities say Onstott confessed, they have no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

Sarah Lunde

The murder trial is on hold while prosecutors appeal a judge's decision to throw out statements Onstott made to law enforcement officers shortly before his arrest.

Onstott also is facing trial on an escape charge he incurred after deputies at Orient Road Jail found a metal shank in his cell and a 7-inch-long channel dug in the mortar.

Assistant Public Defender John Skye asked Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta withhold sentencing on the charge of failing to register as a sex offender until the homicide and escape cases are resolved, Newcomb said.

Ficarrotta scheduled a tentative sentencing for Dec. 3, the same date he wants status updates on the other cases, Newcomb said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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