Detective: We doubted murder suspect's story

By ED QUIOCO

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 5, 2001

A few hours after Cindy Riedweg's body was discovered in her apartment, investigators questioned her next-door neighbor and became suspicious about his answers, a detective testified Tuesday.

During a taped interview with Kenny L. Dessaure Jr., two Pinellas County sheriff's detectives accused him of murdering Riedweg after seeing her sunbathe outside her apartment. Dessaure repeatedly denied the accusations and ended the Feb. 9, 1999, interview by asking for an attorney.

"You are trying to find someone to blame this on, and it won't be me because I didn't do it," Dessaure told Detectives Thomas Klein and Timothy Pupke.

Prosecutors played the tape of the interview for jurors Tuesday, the sixth day of Dessaure's trial. If convicted, Dessaure might face the death penalty.

Dessaure, 23, told detectives that he found Riedweg's body in her apartment after he went there to borrow some ice. Riedweg, 27, was found naked on the floor with 53 bruises, cuts and stab wounds to her face, neck, chest, back and hands.

During the taped interview, Dessaure said he cut his right palm between the thumb and index finger while washing a knife. He went to Riedweg's apartment to borrow some ice, and when no one answered at her door, he "got the chills," Dessaure said during the interview.

"I thought something was wrong with her," he said.

He went inside her apartment and walked to the edge of her kitchen, he said. Then he turned around, and on his way out he saw her body in the hallway next to the bathroom, he told detectives. When he called 911, Dessaure said, he began washing a knife to keep himself calm and cut himself again at the exact same spot on his hand.

"We were becoming very suspicious of his statements to us," Klein told jurors.

Klein and his partner questioned why Dessaure would enter Riedweg's apartment even though he barely knew her. Klein also testified that there was no way Dessaure could have walked to Riedweg's kitchen without seeing her body.

During cross-examination, Dessaure's attorney, Michael S. Schwartzberg, pointed out that Dessaure has cooperated with investigators. He also questioned whether detectives had already made up their minds that Dessaure was guilty when they interviewed him.

Jurors also heard testimony from Dr. Laura S. Hair, who at the time was an associate medical examiner. Hair testified that Riedweg had some defensive wounds on her hands, which she suffered while trying to defend herself, and her trachea was slashed, which meant she could not scream.

Along with more than two dozen wounds on her face, head, back and neck, Riedweg also had two stab wounds on her back that caused her lungs to collapse, Hair testified.

During cross-examination, Hair also testified that there was no indication that Riedweg had been raped. That seemed to contradict earlier testimony from an inmate who had shared a pod with Dessaure.

Shevar Sampson, 19, who is serving a 19-year sentence for seven felony charges, testified Tuesday that Dessaure had told him that he had sex with Riedweg after knocking her unconscious.

Sampson is the second inmate prosecutors have used during the trial.

Prosecutors rested their case against Dessaure on Tuesday. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt Downey III told jurors that there was a possibility they could begin deliberating the case today. Downey also said he would ask Dessaure about whether he wanted to take the stand.

During the taped interview with detectives, Dessaure maintained his innocence as the interview got testy.

"I did not hurt that lady," Dessaure said.

"That's bull," Pupke said. "You didn't hurt her. You killed her."

"I did not kill this lady," Dessaure responded.

"Murder," Pupke said.

"No, I didn't," Dessaure said.

"Murder is what you did," Pupke said.

"Then you prove it," Dessaure said. "Because I didn't do anything."

-- Staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or quioco@sptimes.com.

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