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Jury To Begin Lunde Case Deliberations Today

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 20, 2008

TAMPA - Nearly 31/2 years after hordes of volunteers helped law enforcement search east Hillsborough County for Sarah Michelle Lunde, a jury is set to decide whether David Lee Onstott is guilty of murdering the 13-year-old.

Over the past several days, prosecutors have tried to convince jurors that Onstott went to Sarah's Ruskin home in April 2005, choked Sarah to death, then disposed of her body in an abandoned fish pond.

Defense attorneys have pointed out that the state has offered no DNA and no fingerprints linking Onstott to Sarah. The best the state had to offer for physical evidence was a geologist. She testified that she could not positively link dirt on Onstott's shoes to dirt from the area around the fish pond, but the two samples were "not distinguishable."

Jurors heard testimony of witnesses and pieces of circumstantial evidence that suggest Onstott's guilt.

•A jail deputy testified that Onstott said he choked Sarah.

•A tape recording relays a conversation between Onstott and his former wife in which Onstott says he has now broken every one of the Ten Commandments.

•On another tape recording, according to prosecutors, Onstott tells his mother that he killed a girl.

Defense attorneys, however, pointed out that the jail deputy did not tell anyone about the supposed confession for 11 months. He did not mark it in a log book; he did not tell his supervisor; he did not tell detectives. They also maintain that Onstott's words to his mother are too muffled to make out what he is saying.

Today, the jurors will hear closing arguments from prosecutors and Onstott's attorneys. Deliberations are expected to begin before lunchtime.

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

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