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Some Onstott Statements To Be Made Public At Trial

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI and SAMARA SODOS

The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: August 10, 2008

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• Onstott Trial Begins

David Onstott

TAMPA - More than three years after 13-year-old Sarah Lunde was killed and dumped in a pond near her Ruskin home, prosecutors are about to reveal some of what the slaying suspect said about her death.

David Onstott, charged with murder in Sarah's slaying, is going on trial Monday after three years of legal clashes about what evidence the prosecution may use.

If convicted, Onstott, 40, faces life in prison. Prosecutors announced in May that they would not seek the death penalty.

Lunde's mother, Kelly May, said she plans to attend the trial and hopes it will help her family heal.

Onstott, she said, has "already killed a child. People like that don't change."

Court officials have summoned 100 to 150 potential jurors and jury selection could last several days. After that, the trial is expected to last about a week.

After the jury is seated, prosecutors are expected to deliver for the first time, in opening statements, the evidence they hope will lead to Onstott's conviction.

A judge imposed a gag order on the case and sealed the contents of Onstott's statements to investigators. The public has been given no information about what he said.

Judge Ronald Ficarotta last year dealt prosecutors a setback, throwing out the bulk of Onstott's statements to sheriff's detectives after determining that Onstott had asked for a lawyer and was not provided one. A state appeals court later upheld Ficarotta's ruling.

The court ruling has been tough for Lunde's mother to accept.

"Yes, it bothers me," May said. "I don't see how someone can confess over and over and for it to not make a difference, for a particular technicality to make it not make a difference. ... There are confessions made that are going to be used."

Ficarotta ruled that prosecutors could use some incriminating statements Onstott made, including some things he said to his mother.

Information about the case that has been made public shows investigators had no physical evidence tying Onstott to the crime.

On April 9, 2005, Sarah returned from a church trip. She briefly spoke with her brother and his friend, who went out to get food. Two days later, May reported Sarah missing.

Her body was found in a muddy pond, anchored with concrete blocks.

Investigators immediately focused on Onstott, who was an occasional boyfriend of Sarah's mother. Sarah's brother told law enforcement officers that Onstott was at their mobile home the night she disappeared.

Over several days, Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives interrogated Onstott, who had signed forms agreeing to speak to them without a lawyer present. Then on April 14, 2005, Onstott told a detective he would not sign any more forms without speaking to an attorney.

The detective left the room but another soon entered, and Onstott made a statement. The detectives continued to interview him over the next two days without a lawyer.

May said she hopes Onstott is convicted.

"That's our biggest thing, he does not need to be out in society," she said. "He needs to be locked away and kept there in order to protect other children."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com. Reporter Samara Sodos can be reached at (813) 314-5379 or slsodos@wfla.com.

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