A convicted sex offender on trial in the slaying of a Tampa-area teen three years ago confessed to the killing in a jailhouse conversation with his mother, prosecutors said during opening arguments Wednesday.
Prosecutors said jurors will get to hear the taped conversation in which David Lee Onstott whispers “I killed her” to his mother. Onstott, 40, is charged with attempted sexual battery and first-degree murder in the 2005 death of Sarah Lunde, 13.
Onstott’s attorney said the tape is nearly inaudible, and he disputes that his client made the statement.
Prosecutor Sean Keefe said Onstott came to the house looking for Sarah’s mother, whom he had dated. She wasn’t there, and he ended up strangling the teen, the prosecutor said. Her body, weighted down with concrete, was found a week later in an abandoned fish pond near her home in Ruskin, south of Tampa.
With no physical or forensic evidence linking Onstott to the teen’s slaying, prosecutors are left with his statements and other circumstantial evidence. One piece of evidence — a beer bottle that prosecutors said links Onstott to the killing — has never been found.
Keefe said that once Onstott was in custody, he made statements to various people admitting his guilt. Onstott’s attorney is expected to attack those statements as vague and unreliable.
Wondering what the thought process was here, ” Onstott came to the house looking for Sarah’s mother, whom he had dated. She wasn’t there, and he ended up strangling the teen…”
Does he just think, “Dang, where’s my girlfriend? Guess I’ll have to sit and wait. Maybe I’ll make some coffee, or go out for chicken, or…hang on…”?
Wondering what the thought process was here.
Just another day in the life of a Floridian I guess.
“With no physical or forensic evidence linking Onstott to the teen’s slaying”==then how was he taken into custody?
Linked article reveals he also had a prior conviction.
I am for minimum jail time and maximum counseling/surveillance/support. Maybe the richest nation in the world with the most people in jail needs to rethink our penal philosophy?
#2 “I am for minimum jail time and maximum counseling/surveillance/support.”
As long as these guys are housed next door to you and FAR away from my family, I’ll support it.
So bobbo, If I come over a shoot you and the rest of your family in the head you will be OK with it as long as I promise to go get counseling afterwards?
#3 & 4,
The blind, fearful wing nuts cry once more, “what if, …”.
I am not happy with a system that jails people in conditions that only invite more crime.
You asswipes need a life.
#6 “I am not happy with a system that jails people in conditions that only invite more crime.”
If they never get out how do they commit more crimes?
So, you’re cool with them housing people like this next door to you?
Well–much of my position comes down to the simple fact that what we are doing now isn’t working, but when in college it amazed me how many people were “in jail” for mere maurijuana possession. Back in the day I think the total jail population was 25% drug related and today it is 80%?
I am pro-capital punishment for murder crimes, and life in prison for something less==but if you aren’t going to kill the guy or lock him away for ever, how much good does an 8-year term do except to make the guy unemployable, more wise in the way of crime, and difficult?
So, I say if you aren’t going to get rid of the criminal on a permanent basis, then try to get the person the help they need. Half way houses in my neighborhood, with effective counseling, monitoring, gps computer tracked bracelets and so forth. OR==maybe all the prison/parole system could stay just the same it is BUT legalize drugs and prostitution so that the jails were actually filled with dangerous people instead of medical problems?
Don’t you think if we have the highest percentage of people jailed that we should look at changing what we are doing in some way?
#7 Umm, bobbo. Time for some coffee. We’re discussing this guy who raped & murdered a 13 year old girl, NOT someone who smoked a joint.
So, now that you are reoriented;
Do you want guys like this let out to come live next to you?
#8–Paddy==fair comment. Sorry to go all knee jerk about our penal philosophy when the instant case certainly deserves the death penalty in my book===but if we back up to the sexual assault case, why was he out on the street without close controls==or locked away forever?
As a point of pride, I normally don’t agree with Bobbo’s “wacky” point of view on just about any subject. When Boboo wrote “I am for minimum jail time and maximum counseling/surveillance/support.”, I was all set to write something like “But slow, drawn-out, painful revenge is so much more…. satisfying!”. But then he wrote his comments in #7 and I have to say he kind of made some sense there about keeping the more dangerous people in prison.
Damn somewhat rational Bobbo!
#10–Quite right Steve==I guess they finally got the meds right and the ankle bracelet stopped chaffing my skin, so I’m in a good mood.
#9 “but if we back up to the sexual assault case, why was he out on the street without close controls==or locked away forever?”
“He was convicted of sexual battery in 1995”
If this was actually rape, he shouldn’t have been out. Once you let someone out it is impractical to monitor them. So for those who are sociopaths as evidenced by commissions of really violent crimes, they should stay locked up. The potential benefits don’t outweigh the potential harm…
#12, Cow Paddy,
The point you miss is that prisons turn slight miscreants into hardend criminals. Then when they are released YOU won’t let them live near you. YOU won’t let them get decent jobs. YOU won’t let them be Americans. Their choices become so limited it is no wonder they return to a life of crime.
I know of no country with the crime rate the US has or the recidivism rate. But then every other country I am aware of is much more compassionate about prisoner treatment than is the US.
As Bobbo is trying to point out to you, treating a prisoner like an animal makes him an animal. Give him the help he needs to kick any addictions, get an education, learn a trade, and become a useful member of society. Don’t stop upon release. Continue the assistance after release and even after his sentence is done.
While I am only remotely associated with him (I worked for a while with his wife) there is one local man who served his sentence for a crime committed when 18. He did a couple of years 20 years ago. Today, he can not live close to a school or church. He can not go on a field trip with his kids in school. He is not allowed to be a Boy Scout Leader. He can’t even enter his daughter’s softball field while there are kids on it. He can’t go hunting. While he can drive a truck, he can’t get an O/O permit.
In short, society is doing everything it can to make his life difficult. Many lesser people would have buckled and re-committed.
#13–Fusion==thanks, you have said in more clearly than I did.
Let me add that while giving each “class” of criminal the type of punishment they deserve, the type of support they need, does show them compassion/justice -BUT- when people are helped to become responsible members of society–it helps all those future victims and they are the real target of my concern.
I think its becoming clear that with too many sexual predators, there is no cure. I would then imprison them for life until Clockwork Orange is upon us.
It makes no sense at all to me for a person to be released from jail without the support/surveillance/control they need to make an honest attempt to keep them out of jail.
There is nothing “impractical” about monitoring people with gps bracelets and I would say if they can’t be monitored WHEN THEY NEED TO BE, then they shouldn’t be out of jail to begin with.
Now, I’m assuming practicality might arise when the average cost of 30-50K per year to jail someone is kept in mind?
No bleeding heart here, all I want to be is realistic, practical, cost effective, and work towards the best society of peace and harmony that modern science can give us.
#13 “The point you miss is that prisons turn slight miscreants into hardend criminals. Then when they are released YOU won’t let them live near you.”
I think you misunderstood me. I don’t want hard time & housed with murdering psychos for the “slight miscreants”, only for the very dangerous crims.
Bobbo, as far as the cost. It is worth it for the very dangerous types. They should also have to work and produce s/g to defray the cost of their incarceration.
If that’s the best American prisons have going for them, that they are better then a gulag, that is a sad state of affairs. What a thing to be proud of.