Death Sentence Delivered For Confessed Killer Of 2 Men 20 Years Ago

TAMPA, FL —On Friday, 20 years after two young men were lured from a gay nightclub in Tampa, drugged, sexually tortured and killed, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella meted out the ultimate punishment for their confessed killer, Steven Lorenzo.

The brutal murders of Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, both 26, sent shockwaves through Tampa's gay community in 2003. But, instead of focusing on the gruesome nature of the crimes, Sabella said he made his decision after hearing the testimonies of Wachholtz' mother, Ruth Wachholtz, and Galehouse's mother, Pam Williams, on Feb. 7.

"The thing that was consistent in their testimony is that they had been waiting 20 years for justice," Sabella said, directing his comments to the 64-year-old Lorenzo. "Today, that long wait ends. In the words of Miss Pam Williams from one Italian to another, 'Ti condonno a morte.' That translates to, I sentence you, Mr. Lorenzo, to death. That is the punishment you deserve for these horrific crimes."

Sabella said he detailed his reasons for condemning Lorenzo to death in a 40-page order.

Lorenzo, who represented himself in court, although attorneys Brian Gonzalez and Nick Sinardi, were appointed to serve as his standby counsel, was expressionless as Sabella announced his fate. He then thanked the judge after Sabella told him he would immediately be transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections to await his execution.

"May God have mercy on your soul," Sabella told Lorenzo.

"My soul is fine, thank you, sir," Lorenzo responded smugly as court was dismissed.

Lorenzo has 30 days to appeal the sentence. Gonzalez said the notice of appeal was already prepared and he intended to file it as soon as he left the courtroom.

Lorenzo, who was convicted on federal drug charges in 2005 and is currently serving a 200-year federal sentence, maintained his innocence for 20 years.

Then, in December, he surprised the court by submitting a guilty plea. He admitted to participating in the slayings of the two men with the help of his roommate, Scott Schweickert, and several other men at his Seminole Heights home.

After changing his plea, Lorenzo requested the death sentence, a request that Galehouse's mother was quick to endorse.

“I want that man to get the death penalty and nothing less, period,” Pam Williams said on the stand during the penalty hearing. It was the first time in 20 years that she'd had a chance to speak directly to her son's killer, and she wasn't holding anything back.

“I don’t have a grave. I don’t have a tombstone. All I’ve got is ground-up hamburger meat in the ground because of you," she told Lorenzo. “You’re the dirt underneath my fingernails. And you do not deserve to be living today and even tomorrow. You should be dead already.”

“He should no longer breathe,” Ruth Wachholtz told a judge. “My son doesn’t, so why should he? He is lower than a snake that crawls on the ground, and if found, it should get its head chopped off.”

The two mothers received no apologies from Lorenzo.

"I want this court to think I'm the worst thing on two feet beause I want to get the death penalty," Lorenzo said. “As far as I see it, it’s euthanasia. Everybody in this room has a death sentence. And I’m going to try to speed up this process so I don’t have to wait 15 years.”

He said he believes in reincarnation.

“In this lifetime, I’m the bad guy and you’re the good guy,” he told the prosecutors in the case. “Maybe in the next lifetime, the roles will be reversed.”

Lorenzo and Schweickert were introduced online in October 2003, and, during a series of online messages, concocted plans to find unsuspecting young men who were alone in bars and invite them back to Lorenzo's house on Powhatan Avenue for drinks and consenting sexual bondage.

"Let's violate the world. Let's bring our fantasies to realities. I'm extreme, calculated and love it," Hillsborough County State Attorney Susan Lopez quoted Lorenzo from one chat with Schweickert. "Easy to make them vanish with no link to us in the least."

Lopez related how Lorenzo went on to describe how he would put the man in a choke hold from behind as Schweickert held him down.

On Dec. 19, 20 and 21, 2003, the two men carried out that plan, picking up Wachholtz and Galehouse at the gay nightclub 2606 Armenia on sequential nights and inviting them to Lorenzo's home.

Schweickert, who received a life sentence for his testimony, described how they took Galehouse's body to Lorenzo's garage where they dismembered him with an electric saw. Schweickert said they placed the body part in bags that they dropped in trash bins around Tampa.

"The murder of Mr. Galehouse is the very definition of cold, calculated and premeditated," said

Wachholtz’s body was placed in the back of his Jeep Cherokee, which the men then abandoned at an apartment complex in west Hillsborough County.

In addition to Schweickert's testimony, prosecutors presented DNA evidence found in Lorenzo's home and garage and photos of the men bound and battered.