Bizarre moment killer thanks judge for sentencing him to death

vt-author-image

By stefan armitage

Article saved!Article saved!

A convicted killer has bizarrely thanked a judge for sentencing him to death.

Per Fox 13 News, Steven Lorenzo pleaded guilty years ago to two counts of first-degree murder for the brutal 2003 killings of two gay men - Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz.

Along with accomplice Scott Schweickert - who has also pleaded guilty for his participation in the murders - Lorenzo stood accused of luring Wachholtz and Galehouse back to his home, separately, before drugging and killing the two men.

Wachholtz's body was later found wrapped in a sheet inside the trunk of his own car in a parking lot.

Galehouse's body was never found after he was dismembered and had his remains dumped in random dumpsters.

Addressing Lorenzo, Galehouse's mother, Pam Williams, said inside the Florida court earlier this week: "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, you scumbag. That’s exactly what you are. You should be dead already, as far as I’m concerned. You put me through holy hell."

You can watch the bizarre sentencing below:

Wachholtz's mother, Ruth Wachholtz, echoed calls for the death penalty for Lorenzo, telling the court: "What he did to my son before murdering him should be done to him, eye for an eye.

"For 20 years he lived, and Michael hasn't. At taxpayers’ expense, no less. It's time to end this."

In 2016, Schweickert pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison in exchange for testifying against accomplice Lorenzo.

Despite fighting the charges for years, Lorenzo has since pleaded guilty to the murders, and appeared in court on Friday  (February 24) to ask Judge Christopher Sabella for the death sentence.

size-large wp-image-1263197007
Lorenzo in court. Credit: ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy

Representing himself, Lorenzo said in a statement to the court: "I'm seeking the death penalty. It's in my best interest. I'll be living a lot more comfortable than I would in the federal system, living on death row, believe it or not."

He continued: "That may sound selfish, but I've lived in a private cell for the last 5 years and I'm gonna have a private cell on death row. At my age, I want to be comfortable, I want my privacy, that's what I want. It may sound selfish, but that's the way it is. You live for today, you don't live for the past."

Lorenzo went on to describe the death penalty as "euthanasia", before telling the court:  "I already have a death sentence, everyone in this room has a death sentence."

He then explained that rather than staying alive for "about 10-15 years", he'd rather die in order to "come back again".

size-large wp-image-1263197011
Judge Christopher Sabella. Credit: ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy

"The sooner I get euthanized, as far as I'm concerned, the faster I can fetch myself a new body and come back again, a fresh body, that's how I look at it," he said. "We're eternal beings. I've got better things to do with my time than to hang out and spend 15-20 years on death row or in any prison system."

Judge Sabella made it clear that Lorenzo's statement held no weight regarding his decision, but did eventually issue the death sentence.

"In the words of Ms. Pam Williams, from one Italian to another, 'Ti condanno a morte,' that translates to I sentence you to death," the judge said. "That is the punishment you deserve for these horrific crimes."

Then, in a rather bizarre scene, Lorenzo thanked the judge for his ruling, saying: "Thank you, your honor, I appreciate it."

When Judge Sabella declared: "May God have mercy on your soul,", Lorenzo simply replied: "My soul is fine, thank you sir."

Featured image credit: ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy.