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Onstott Found Guilty Of 2nd-Degree Murder

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

David Lee Onstott reacts to the guilty verdict.

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 21, 2008

TAMPA - A statement David Lee Onstott made to law enforcement during his interrogation was thrown out. Jurors never heard it.

The remaining evidence was scant: no DNA, no fingerprints.

Regardless, after 13 hours of deliberation over two days, 12 jurors found Onstott guilty of second-degree murder and battery in the 2005 death of Sarah Michelle Lunde.

Kelly May, the mother of 13-year-old victim, said she never lost faith in the jury.

"We all knew the truth," she said outside the courthouse Thursday. "We did a lot of praying and hoped that they could see the truth too. And they did."

At 10 a.m. Friday, Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta will pronounce sentence.

Onstott, 40, faces up to life in prison.

Prosecutors had fought for a first-degree murder conviction, which would have included a mandatory life sentence. The death penalty was not an option. Prosecutors took it off the table after the judge threw out Onstott's statement to law enforcement.

Prosecutors also asked for a conviction on a charge of attempted sexual battery with great force.

Instead, the jury opted for the lesser second-degree murder and battery convictions.

As the jurors left the courthouse, they declined to stop for questions. One woman said that the length of time it took to deliberate speaks for itself.

May said she trembled when the jury returned to the courtroom and she waited to hear the verdict.

"I almost passed out," she said.

Friday, she will get the opportunity to speak at Onstott's sentencing hearing. She's expecting a life sentence.

"As long as he's locked up, he can't hurt anyone else," she said. "No more women; no more children."

On April 9, 2005, a Saturday, Sarah returned to the family's Ruskin mobile home after a church trip. Her mother was out of town for the weekend.

Sarah's 17-year-old brother and his 15-year-old friend drove to Taco Bell to grab some dinner. They met girls and did not return until the early morning hours.

When they came home, the door was open. A beer bottle sat on a table. Sarah was gone.

Figuring she went to a friend's house, Andrew Lunde went to sleep.

About 4:30 a.m., the brother testified, Onstott knocked on the door and asked about their mother. Onstott and May had a three-month-long sexual relationship that ended several months earlier.

When Onstott left, he grabbed the beer bottle, Lunde testified. He said he guessed Onstott had been to the home while he was out and had left the bottle.

The next day, May returned home. She assumed Sarah was at church. When Sarah did not return home that night, May figured her daughter spent the night with a friend, as she was known to do.

May called school the next day. Sarah had not shown up. May called the sheriff's office, spurring a week-long manhunt. Sarah's body was found in an abandoned fish pond, naked from the waist down and weighted down with concrete blocks.

With Andrew Lunde's information, sheriff's detectives interviewed Onstott over several days. They flew in his mother from Michigan. He told her he felt like a monster sometimes. He wondered why he could act so vicious.

When his mother told him to tell the truth, he began to talk about prison.

Sheriff's deputies and prosecutors say Onstott ultimately acknowledged his guilt. The statement never has been released.

Before each interview, Onstott had signed a form agreeing to speak without an attorney. During one interview, however, he said he would sign no more forms and asked for his attorney.

Deputies continued to ask questions until he began to talk.

Judge Ficarrotta determined the statement was inadmissible.

Defense attorneys suggested to the jury that Sarah's brother and his friend might have committed the crime and fingered Onstott. They were never considered suspects by law enforcement.

At trial, however, a jail deputy testified that Onstott told him he strangled Sarah.

Also, prosecutors played for the jurors a recording of Onstott talking to his former wife from a jail phone. He said he had now broken every one of the Ten Commandments.

Tampa defense lawyer John Fitzgibbons, who has no ties to the case, said it would be terribly difficult for an attorney to explain the recording.

"The hardest thing to cross examine is your own client's voice," he said.

Friday, before the sentencing hearing, the judge is scheduled to discuss the release of Onstott's statement to law enforcement. Until now, it has been sealed to prevent pre-trial publicity form affecting the case.

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

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