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Ex-Wife's Testimony Reveals Onstott's Religious Struggle

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 16, 2008

Updated: 08/16/2008 12:13 am

TAMPA - On Friday, the third day of testimony, jurors witnessed David Lee Onstott's religious side.

Onstott's former wife, Rhonda Crouse, told the jurors that Onstott called her from the Orient Road Jail not long after he was charged with murder in the death of 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde.

All calls from the jail are recorded. Prosecutors replayed for the jurors one of those conversations.

On the recording, Onstott cries as he talks to Crouse. She tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself.

He says he's struggling with the Lord.

"Don't struggle with the Lord," she scolds him. "The most important thing is your salvation."

As the recording played in the courtroom, Onstott faced forward in his seat, his head cocked to one side. His jaw was clenched and he seemed to be fighting emotions.

The recording continued.

"You know, I've broken every commandment now," Onstott says.

"Yes. Every single one," Crouse responds.

"Every single one," he says again.

"There was only one left, and then you did it," she says.

"Every single one," he says.

The jurors paid especially close attention to the conversation. Some took furious notes; others looked disturbed or concerned.

Later Friday, a jail deputy testified that he was assigned to observe Onstott, who was under suicide watch at the jail.

Brian Herndon testified that he was studying for college classes and a job-related promotion exam when Onstott tried to strike up a conversation.

Ultimately, Herndon said, Onstott told him he went to his former girlfriend's house for sex. She wasn't there and Onstott got into an argument with her daughter, Herndon said.

Onstott said the argument turned into a struggle and he grabbed the girl in a chokehold, Herndon testified. Herndon said that Onstott described how the girl gasped for air, passed out and died.

Prior to Friday, this information was not released publicly. Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta sealed it from pre-trial release.

Defense attorneys, however, pointed out that Herndon told no one about this conversation for 11 months. He did not mark it into a jail logbook and did not tell his supervisor.

"I actually thought it was common knowledge," Herndon testified. "He just told me he had come back from talking to a detective."

Onstott had acknowledged killing Sarah when he talked to the detectives, prosecutors have said. Ficarrotta, however, said jurors could not hear what Onstott had to say to detectives. Onstott had asked for a lawyer and was not provided one.

Possibly further muddling Herndon's testimony was his reason for leaving the sheriff's office. He testified that he was under investigation for using steroids and would have been fired had he not resigned.

Without physical evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints that would link Onstott to Sarah's death - and without a confession from Onstott - prosecutors are relying on the witnesses' testimony as they relate what Onstott told them.

Sarah returned from a weekend church trip in April 2005. Her brother left with a friend for several hours and returned to find the door open to their Ruskin mobile home. Sarah was missing.

After a large-scale manhunt, her body was found partially submerged in an abandoned fish pond.
Defense attorneys have questioned why her brother and his 15-year-old friend, who has admitted to having sex with Sarah, were not treated as suspects.

On Monday, prosecutors are expected to play a lengthy recording of a conversation between Onstott and his mother. Prosecutors contend that he tells his mother he killed Sarah. Defense attorneys say the tape is much too muffled to hear his words.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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