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Man won't take stand in drug distribution trial
His attorney says Steven Lorenzo decided not to testify.
By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published November 8, 2005
TAMPA - A Tampa man who authorities say drugged, tortured and sexually violated seven young men won't testify at his federal trial, his attorney said Monday. The case could be in the hands of the jury before the week's end.
Steven Lorenzo faces 20 years in prison on each of nine different charges of distributing the "date rape" drug GHB. Donald Harrison, Lorenzo's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara Lorenzo decided over the weekend he will not take the stand.
Lorenzo, 46, of 213 W Powhatan Ave., has told investigators he doesn't remember what happened, and the sexual encounters at his home were consensual.
Harrison will call his first witness to the stand today and told the judge he planned to wrap up his defense by Wednesday.
On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli called to testify friends and former roommates of Jason Galehouse, a 26-year-old Sarasota man whom Lorenzo is accused of torturing. Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, 26, of Tampa, both disappeared in December 2003. Lorenzo is also accused of torturing Wachholtz in his Seminole Heights home.
While Lorenzo has not been charged with murder, Porcelli presented evidence during the trial that he has said he hopes will implicate Lorenzo in their deaths of Galehouse and Wachholtz.
Suzanna Ulery, a DNA expert with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, testified Monday that DNA samples from Galehouse matched DNA found on a black gas mask taken from Lorenzo's home. Ulery also said Galehouse's DNA matched blood stains found on cobblestone bricks on the floor of a detached garage at Lorenzo's home.
Besides the "date rape" drug charges, Lorenzo also faces a charge of conspiring with Scott Schweickert, of Peru, Ill., to distribute the drug.
--Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com
[Last modified November 8, 2005, 02:15:36]
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