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Defense says old rape not relevant

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published February 8, 2007

TAMPA - Prosecutors want jurors to hear testimony from the woman David Lee Onstott raped 10 years before he was charged with killing Ruskin teenager Sarah Lunde.

But a defense attorney argued Wednesday that the cases are too different to allow evidence from the previous crime to be used at Onstott's first-degree murder trial next month.

"It just doesn't work," said John Skye, an assistant public defender. "It's not logically or legally relevant."

Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta said he would rule on the issue by the end of next week.

No physical evidence has linked Onstott to Lunde's killing in April 2005, and the method of killing authorities say he confessed to doesn't match the medical examiner's cause of death.

Criminal records typically aren't permitted as evidence. But under Florida's Williams Rule, past acts may be introduced if they are similar enough to prove the defendant's frame of mind, intent or identity.

Skye said most of the similarities prosecutors cited between Onstott's 1995 conviction for sexual battery and his charges of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery in Lunde's death were flimsy.

But Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner said the description Onstott gave authorities of how he choked Lunde had "striking similarity" to the manner in which he had choked his earlier victim.

Onstott, 38, threatened to kill his first victim so there wouldn't be a witness, then carried out the threat on Lunde, Pruner said.

"He knew that the act would cause her death," Pruner said, "and he wasn't going to leave a witness."

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 8, 2007, 01:14:35]