Safety Harbor defendant gets 20-year sentence in kidnapping

The couple left in the trunk of their car are disappointed the man did not get a life sentence.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2000

LARGO -- For a time, Gerald Leary felt so unsafe that he would uneasily peer out his window at night to be sure nobody was prowling around his Safety Harbor house.

In fact, Leary, 78, and his wife, Carol, no longer automatically open their front door when a stranger knocks.

"We find out who it is first," said Mrs. Leary, 77. "If we don't know them, we ask for identification."

It wasn't long ago that a knock at the door by someone claiming to sell Avon products began a horrific ordeal for the couple.

Now the man they most blame for ending a lifetime of security and peace of mind is headed to state prison.

Marty Lee Lunsford pleaded no contest on Tuesday to kidnapping and robbery charges for the October 1998 kidnapping of the Learys that ended with the couple locked in the trunk of their Cadillac, abandoned in a wooded area near Ocala.

A police officer discovered them dehydrated and frightened, but otherwise unharmed.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt Downey III, who once said the Learys might easily have died during the ordeal, sentenced Lunsford to 20 years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of probation.

Lunsford, 21, formerly of Tampa, faced three life prison terms had he been convicted at a trial scheduled to open Tuesday.

Prosecutors sought a life sentence but Downey offered Lunsford the lesser sentence in exchange for the plea.

Lunsford, offered the same plea deal by the judge earlier this year, rejected it, but changed his mind on the day of his trial Tuesday.

The Learys say they are disappointed that Lunsford isn't going to spend the rest of his life in prison.

"I'm glad it's over," Mrs. Leary said. "But I wish he had gone to trial because I think he would have been convicted and gotten a stiffer sentence."

Downey had earlier rejected a request by Lunsford's attorney to give him a sentence less than state guidelines, which called for a sentence of no less than 10 years in prison.

The ordeal began for the Learys on a weeknight in October 1998 when a woman claiming to sell Avon products knocked on their front door as they watched Wheel of Fortune. When they opened the door, a woman and two men burst in.

They held the couple at gunpoint and bound them with plastic ties. The robbers then ransacked the house, stealing jewelry and money.

Lunsford is described by prosecutor Kendall Davidson as the mastermind of the kidnapping plot. Mrs. Leary testified at a pretrial hearing earlier this year that Lunsford threatened their lives repeatedly.

"He's the one who violently threw my husband to the ground, sat on him and trussed him up like a turkey," she said in January.

Eventually, the kidnappers led the Learys to their car, a year-old special edition Cadillac ornamented with molds of golf clubs and golf balls on the wheel covers and an embroidery of a putting green on the side of the cloth-covered roof.

Gerald Leary said the kidnappers must have thrown his golf clubs from the trunk to make room for him and his wife.

They were locked in the trunk more than 12 hours as their kidnappers drove the car on a wild ride. At one point, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper tried to stop the kidnappers for speeding, not realizing the Learys were in the trunk.

But the trooper broke off the chase because of the high speed and danger to other motorists.

Finally, the kidnappers abandoned the car with the Learys still inside in Marion County.

The Learys waited hours in the hot trunk, terrified that they would not be found. They drank drops of condensation from inside the car trunk to quench their thirst.

Finally, a nearby homeowner in the wooded area noticed the car and called police. Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Hayes responded. He immediately heard Leary rapping the inside of the trunk with a golf ball.

Gregory Royster, 23, pleaded guilty last July for his role in the kidnapping. Downey sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

A third defendant, Sonja Little, 19, also pleaded no contest last year to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to four years of probation. Prosecutors say Little did not actively participate in the kidnapping.

A final defendant in the kidnapping, Leslie Jeanne Hudgins, 43, of Clearwater, the woman who first went to the Learys door posing as a saleswoman selling Avon products, is awaiting trial.

Lunsford's attorney, Michael Schwartzberg, said his client pleaded no contest with the understanding that he retains his right to appeal an earlier decision by the judge.

Earlier this year, Lunsford asked that Downey remove himself from the case because the defendant did not think he could preside fairly. Downey refused the request.

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