TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Lorenzo, who last month requested to withdraw his not-guilty pleas for the infamous killings of two gay men in 2003, received his request in court Tuesday — twice guilty of first-degree murder.
Judge Christopher Sabella set a sentencing date for Feb. 6, 2023, when the second part of Lorenzo's request may be considered — be sentenced to death.
For more than a decade, Lorenzo denied killing Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz. He, too, called the state of Florida's "death penalty rhetoric...quite childish and ridiculous" in a written letter to the court in December 2021.
But his views apparently changed.
In a 16-page handwritten letter filed before the Thanksgiving holiday, Lorenzo asked the court for the change because "the end results will prove to be identical" regardless of a trial. "Simply because the defendant has no intention of taking the witness stand under oath at a trial," wrote Lorenzo, referring to himself, to the judge.
He says the case would have "gone unchallenged anyway" and waived his right to an appeal.
Assistant State Attorney Darrell Dirks responded to Lorenzo's letter, writing prosecutors will allow the case to proceed but only if he "made these requests knowingly and intelligently." His handwritten letter "properly cites applicable Florida statutes, rules and case history," and he has the right to enter guilty pleas for murder as long as he has "a full understanding of the legal implications of his decisions" the state said.
Lorenzo, 63, appeared in court last week when another court hearing was scheduled for Dec. 6 for Lorenzo to fill out a proper form for his plea.
Already, Lorenzo is serving another sentence on drug charges that date back to 2005.
Prosecutors said Lorenzo drugged several men, rendering them unconscious, so he could subdue, torture and sexually violate them.
Galehouse and Wachholtz disappeared in December 2003, and friends of the victims pushed for police to investigate. Eventually, an investigation led to the arrest of Scott Schweickert and Lorenzo, who were convicted in federal court for drugging the men.
However, Schweickert and Lorenzo weren't immediately charged with murder. That changed in 2012 when prosecutors said the pair drugged, tortured and killed the men and placed their body parts in dumpsters.
Schweickert remains in prison, where he will spend the rest of his life, after he was sentenced in 2016 on two counts of first-degree murder for killing the men.
10 Tampa Bay's BriShon Mitchell and Miguel Octavio contributed to this report.