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Jury deliberates in sex drug trial

The jurors will decide whether a Tampa man secretly gave GHB to nine men to control them and commit violence.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published November 10, 2005

TAMPA - Federal prosecutors exhibited online chats, seized during a search of Steven Lorenzo's home, in which Lorenzo describes using the drug GHB to "put men in a fog" and control them sexually.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony E. Porcelli presented records of GHB seized from Lorenzo's home in June 2004. Investigators found thousands of pictures of apparently unconscious men inside what looks to be Lorenzo's home, bound and bleeding and posed in various positions. They found a gas mask, duct tape and other sex toys in a dungeon-like room.

But does that prove Lorenzo, 46, administered GHB to nine men - including one who was later found dead, and another who is presumed dead - with the intention of committing violence against them?

Wednesday, that question went to the jury. Jurors late in the afternoon began deliberating the government's case against Lorenzo, which also includes a 10th charge of conspiring to administer GHB for violent intent.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Jurors will continue deliberations this morning.

Seven men have testified that they took a drink from Lorenzo, passed out and woke up to find he was torturing and raping them. The body of alleged victim Michael Wachholtz was found two weeks after he was reported missing in December 2003, and the medical examiner found evidence of GHB.

Jason Galehouse, who disappeared the same weekend, has not been found, but a man described as Lorenzo's accomplice has told authorities he helped Lorenzo cut up Galehouse's body.

Authorities have not charged Lorenzo or his alleged accomplice, Scott Schweickert, with murder.

Defense attorney Donald Harrison said the seven who testified were consensual partners of Lorenzo's. He said the prosecution has not presented toxicology reports or other medical proof that the seven had GHB in their bodies after their alleged encounters with Lorenzo.

"The government's witnesses are saying they believed they were on GHB based on the symptoms described," Harrison said during his closing arguments. "We don't know it was GHB."

Tuesday and early Wednesday, jurors heard from the defense's few witnesses, who testified to seeing Wachholtz alive after his encounter with Lorenzo the weekend of Dec. 19, 2003.

One witness, former Green Iguana bathroom attendant Luis Davila, testified that he saw Wachholtz on Dec. 24, 2003, a Wednesday.

Porcelli previously showed jurors pictures of a man, identified as Wachholtz, that were taken in Lorenzo's home on Dec. 21, 2003. Medical experts testified in the trial that Wachholtz appears to be dead in the pictures.

But Davila insisted Wednesday he saw Wachholtz three days later. Wachholtz came into the Iguana "every weekend and every Wednesday. He never missed Wednesday," Davila said.

Dec. 24, Wachholtz went into the bathroom and bought Marlboro Lights and got a spritz of Acqua di Gio cologne, Davila said.

Porcelli, on cross examination, reminded Davila that a day earlier, he told Porcelli he last saw Wachholtz on Dec. 17.

"Yesterday, I just started working it out in my mind," Davila explained. "When I spoke to you yesterday, I was confused. I went home and looked at my calendar."

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 10, 2005, 01:20:16]