He is too young to face the death penalty, but his conviction for first-degree murder ensures that he will receive a life sentence.
By BRADY DENNIS
Published July 25, 2003
TAMPA - In the end, people on both sides of the courtroom cried. But the boy who will spend his life in prison sat silent and stone-faced.
A Hillsborough jury on Thursday took less than two hours to convict 17-year-old Michael Gonzalez of raping and murdering 73-year-old Anna Erwin on Jan. 10, 2002.
"We've been waiting a long time for (this)," said Roy Erwin, 76, the victim's husband of 55 years. "It will never be the same. But by the same token, we feel justice was served."
Authorities say the teenager, then 15, cut Erwin's throat with a knife in her home on Sussex Drive in Town 'N Country, several doors down from his.
Investigators later found claw marks on his chest, suggesting a struggle, and took a DNA swab from his mouth. They say he also gave a detailed confession, describing how he conned his way into Erwin's home by pretending to use the phone.
Detectives also found the murder weapon - a folding knife - where Gonzalez told them to look, hidden behind speakers in his sister's mobile home.
Prosecutor Jay Pruner on Thursday played a recorded phone call Gonzalez had made to a cousin, in which he discussed the murder. In it, the teen says that "after I killed that b----," he stood over her, "looking at her blood."
Gonzalez, shackled and wearing a plaid shirt, showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was read.
But members of Erwin's family broke down in tears and hugged one another. Roy Erwin quietly bowed his head and dabbed at his eyes with a tissue.
Gonzalez is too young to face the death penalty, but the first-degree murder conviction assureshe will receive a life sentence. Some family members said his childhood was its own prison.
As a juvenile, he moved in and out of government homes for truant and emotionally disturbed children and repeatedly attempted suicide. His arrests included charges of burglary and assault.
"He just got a raw deal. The system failed him. His family failed him. Where could he go for help?" Gonzalez's aunt, Nora Valdes, said. "He was like a time bomb waiting to explode."
Valdes, along with two other family members, came Thursday to offer the boy support, to cry for him when the verdict was read. But she refused to defend what he did.
"He is my nephew, and I love him," she said. "But he did a terrible thing."
To some in Erwin's family, even life in prison isn't enough.
"He has left a very big void in our lives that will never be filled," said Suzi Dickison, one of Erwin's three daughters. "I don't feel sorry for him. He doesn't deserve any happiness, as far as I'm concerned. He just needs to have that hell every day."
After all the tears shed Thursday, Valdes summed up how both sides felt:
"There are no winners here."
A sentencing hearing for Gonzalez is scheduled for Aug. 25.
