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Prosecutors will retry man in murder plot

The state's high court called for a new trial for Michael Mordenti; he's on death row for a contract killing in Odessa.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Published March 18, 2005

TAMPA - Three months after the Florida Supreme Court ruled Michael Mordenti deserves a new trial, Hillsborough prosecutors have announced they plan to retry the St. Petersburg used-car dealer on charges he murdered a woman in her Odessa horse barn.

Mordenti, 63, remains on Florida's death row, where he has been since his 1991 conviction for the murder of 54-year-old Thelma Royston. Prosecutors painted Mordenti as the triggerman in a $17,000 murder-for-hire plot originated by Royston's husband, Larry Royston.

The state could produce no physical evidence linking Mordenti to the June 1989 murder. Instead, the case hinged on the word of Mordenti's ex-wife, Gail Mordenti Milligan, who confessed to orchestrating the murder but walked free in exchange for naming Mordenti.

At the retrial, Milligan will again take the stand as the prosecution's star witness - and the prime target of the defense, which will aggressively attack her credibility.

"If the state is serious about going forward with this trial, Gail is the case - there's nothing else," said Martin McClain, Mordenti's lawyer. "Since I'm absolutely convinced she is a liar, I want to try to demonstrate that you cannot believe a word she says."

In December, when the Florida Supreme Court granted Mordenti a new trial, it ruled that prosecutors had withheld crucial evidence at the first trial that would have cast doubt on his ex-wife's credibility. Among that evidence was her date book, which exposed inconsistencies in the timeline she wove of the murder plot.

At his first trial, Mordenti was represented by an attorney who had never handled a murder case. Then-prosecutor Karen Cox attacked the credibility of alibi witnesses who said Mordenti was attending a used-car auction, 90 miles from the crime scene, when Thelma Royston was killed.

The prosecutor also introduced into evidence a .22-caliber revolver, even though it was not the murder weapon. Milligan told jurors her ex-husband gave her the gun after the murder. Earlier, she had sworn he gave her the revolver months before the murder.

McClain, Mordenti's current defense attorney, plans to object if prosecutors produce the gun at the retrial. "Why was it introduced?" he said. "It has nothing to do with anything."

To head off the threat of snitches, the defense attorney has not asked that Mordenti be transferred from his current cell at Union Correctional into the Hillsborough County lockup.

"In county jail, the state is frequently able to offer someone a deal in order to say something (against a defendant)," McClain said. "(Mordenti) is in isolation 22 hours a day, and the only people around him are people already on death row."

The retrial is scheduled before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe on May 9. Mordenti has not waived his right to a speedy trial, and his lawyer said he is eager to put the case before a jury as soon as possible.

"I've been preparing for the last three years," McClain said, adding that Mordenti's "spirits are actually pretty good. He's convinced he's going to be out soon."

Hillsborough state attorney spokeswoman Pam Bondi said the state will again seek the death penalty against Mordenti.

Christopher Goffard can be reached at 813 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:42:17]