Jury Left To Mull Onstott's Words After Girl's Killing

No physical evidence links David Lee Onstott to the killing of a 13-year-old girl in 2005, defense attorneys said Wednesday during closing arguments.

Prosecutors told the jury there are no other possible suspects and that Onstott's actions and words after the disappearance of Sarah Michelle Lunde prove that he is the killer.

After a week of trial proceedings, the case went to the jury of 12 at 1:20 p.m. Wednesday. The panel deliberated 4 1/2 hours before Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta sent them home for the night.

The jurors will return this morning to resume trying to decide whether Onstott is guilty of first-degree murder.

In his closing arguments, Assistant Public Defender John Skye questioned prosecutors' theory about how the crime occurred.

It is not enough to convict Onstott if jurors are thinking, "He's guilty, but I don't know how he did it," Skye said. "If you don't know how he did it, he's not guilty."

Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner said Sarah was last seen just after midnight on April 10, 2005. A week later, her body was found in a severe state of decomposition in an abandoned fish pond near her Ruskin home.

Onstott, 40, acknowledged to a former jail deputy that he strangled the teen, Pruner said. It has also been proven that Onstott attempted to sexually batter Sarah, Pruner said.

"What other rational conclusion can you find from the way her body was found?" Pruner asked jurors. "No clothes from the waist down; her bra pushed up."

The testimony of former jail deputy Brian Herndon is not true, Skye said. Herndon did not come forward with the information about Onstott for 11 months.

"I don't know why Deputy Herndon told you what he told you," Skye said. "But we know this: He had 11 months to think about it."

Onstott was "uniquely capable" of committing the crime, Pruner said. He went to the house of Sarah's mother, Kelly May, that night in April for sex and it resulted in murder, Pruner said.

Skye said that when detectives focused on Onstott, he talked to them willingly. Onstott allowed them to search his truck and his girlfriend's car and agreed to go to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for an extended interview, Skye said.

Onstott allowed them to take his clothes.

"Like anyone who is not guilty would do," Skye said.

Citing a recorded conversation between Onstott and his mother while he was in custody, Pruner said Onstott wonders to his mother how he acts so "vicious" at times and how he doesn't understand his anger. Pruner pointed out for jurors that Onstott never tells his mother he's being framed and never wonders why he is being questioned by detectives. When his mother asks him to tell the truth, he talks about prison.

"That's an admission of guilt," Pruner said.

The prosecution also focused on a conversation in which Onstott tells his former wife that he has broken "every commandment now." Prosecutors argued that Onstott's most recent broken commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

An alternate juror released by the judge Wednesday said he would have voted to convict Onstott of murder.

Richard Bulick of Ruskin said the conversation between Onstott and his former wife about the Ten Commandments, and the conversation with Onstott's mother were key pieces of evidence.

"The ex-wife really did it for me," Bulick said.

Still, the 12 jurors who will decide Onstott's fate seemed far from agreement at the end of the day. They sent a note to Ficarrotta, not realizing he would send them home.

"It looks like it's going to be a long night," they wrote.