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Romantic linkage key to defense strategy

A lawyer aims to show an illicit affair led to a murder-for-hire scheme in a 1989 slaying.

By TOM ZUCCO
Published May 14, 2005

TAMPA - Defense attorney Martin McClain made his final assault Friday on the credibility of the state's star witness in the murder-for-hire case of Michael Mordenti, the 63-year-old St. Petersburg used car dealer convicted of killing an Odessa woman in 1989.

And in large part, McClain focused on romance.

Lacking substantial physical evidence, prosecutors have centered their case on Gail Milligan, Mordenti's ex-wife, who confessed to setting up the murder of 54-year-old Thelma Royston and who walked away free in exchange for naming Mordenti as the killer.

Mordenti, who has spent the past 14 years on death row, was granted a new trial in December after the Florida Supreme Court ruled prosecutors at his first trial withheld crucial evidence. Mordenti's retrial began Monday, and the state is again seeking the death penalty.

Milligan testified earlier in the week that she wasn't romantically involved with Larry Royston, Thelma Royston's husband and the man behind the plot that led to her murder.

That testimony was called into question Friday.

Glenn Donnell, Milligan's former business partner, testified that Milligan told him she would like to have Mordenti killed, and that he thought Milligan's relationship with Larry Royston "seemed to be more than a business relationship."

Another of Milligan's business partners, Jack Gartley, testified the relationship between Milligan and Royston was "pretty hot.

"I double-dated with them twice," Gartley said. "They were holding hands and kissing."

Gartley also said Milligan told him two or three times "she wanted to have his (Mordenti's) knees busted or have him put away."

But the most potentially explosive testimony was never heard by the jury.

Largo attorney John Trevena, who had represented Larry Royston after Royston was charged in his wife's murder, took the stand while the jury was out of the courtroom so the judge could decide whether his testimony should be admitted.

According to Trevena, Larry Royston saw Mordenti in court and remarked, "That's not the guy."

Trevena also said Royston told him a 13-minute cell phone conversation between Royston and Mordenti a few hours before the murder was an "innocent call about a boat or motor home" and not the call prosecutors claim sealed Thelma Royston's fate.

"Overall," Trevena said, "Mr. Royston said Gail Milligan had orchestrated this. She was responsible and he was extremely troubled she was not being prosecuted."

Larry Royston committed suicide in 1991, the day before his trial was to begin.

Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon immediately objected to Trevena's testimony, calling it "rank hearsay." Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer agreed and ruled Trevena's testimony inadmissible.

"If I'm wrong," Fleischer said, "the Supreme Court will tell me."

Closing arguments are Monday.

[Last modified May 14, 2005, 01:17:08]