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Judges: Drugging Evidence Sufficient

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

JACKSONVILLE - The evidence against Scott Schweickert in his drug-torture case is "overwhelming," a federal appeals judge said Tuesday.

A three-judge panel heard arguments Monday in the case of Steven Lorenzo, who is serving 200 years in federal prison for giving the date rape drug GHB to nine men with the intent to commit a crime of violence. Two of the men, Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, died in December 2003.

Lorenzo was convicted of conspiring with Schweickert in the cases of the two deceased victims.

Schweickert is serving 40 years in federal prison for giving GHB to Wachholtz with the intent to commit a crime of violence and for conspiring with Lorenzo. A jury acquitted Schweickert of the drug charge in the Galehouse case.

Schweickert's court-appointed attorney, Pedro Amador, argued Tuesday that the evidence against his client was insufficient to support his convictions.

But the judges hammered Amador with descriptions of the trial evidence, including Schweickert and Lorenzo's Internet chats in which they discussed drugging and torturing victims. The judges also mentioned Schweickert's detailed statement to investigators in which he described helping Lorenzo subdue the two victims and dispose of their bodies.

Amador said Schweickert didn't acknowledge drugging the victims, which was the charge in this case. But the judges noted Schweickert said he saw Lorenzo prepare a drink for Wachholtz and that Lorenzo must have slipped something into it.

Judge Rosemary Barkett wondered why Amador said the evidence was not enough for the jury to infer that Schweickert had helped drug the victim. The evidence didn't have to be specific, the judge said, just enough to support a reasonable inference of guilt.

"I don't think we need to discuss sufficiency of evidence" any more, said Judge R. Lanier Anderson. "It seems to be frankly overwhelming evidence of guilt."

Amador then argued that Schweickert's statement should be thrown out because he had asked for a lawyer and wasn't given one, and because detectives had promised him immunity in exchange for the statement.

But the judges elicited from Amador that the detectives denied offering Schweickert immunity.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Rhodes argued that the fact that jurors acquitted Schweickert on the charge involving Galehouse shows how careful they were. "There certainly was undisputed evidence about what happened to Mr. Galehouse," Rhodes said.

That evidence included Schweickert's statement describing how he helped Lorenzo kill Galehouse and dismember and dispose of the body.

But there was less evidence that Galehouse was drugged because his body was never found, Rhodes said. That proves, he said, that the jury focused on the evidence relating to the charges in the case.

"Were state charges brought against either of these people?" Barkett asked.

"No, your honor," Rhodes said.

"No murder. Anything?"

"Not to this day. No."

Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober has said his office was preparing murder charges against Lorenzo and Schweickert. Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said that action is pending

Judge James C. Hill alluded to the tax case against infamous gangster Al Capone and said there was "nothing insidious" about bringing charges in federal court when a state trial might be "messy."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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