ABOVE: Steven Lorenzo awaits his sentence Feb. 24. Screenshot via News Channel 8.
TAMPA | Steven Lorenzo was sentenced to death in a Hillsborough County court Feb. 24 for the 2003 murders of 26-year-olds Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz.
Lorenzo, 64, was convicted of drugging and raping nine men in 2005. He sought to change his plea to guilty for the two murders and be sentenced to death while serving a 200-year federal prison sentence last year.
Scott Schweickert, Lorenzo’s co-defendant, had previously confessed to helping lure the two men to Lorenzo’s Seminole Heights home in 2003 from a now-defunct gay bar. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for confessing to their murders, avoiding the death penalty for testifying against Lorenzo.
“Although Wachholtz’s body was later found wrapped in a sheet in the back of his SUV, Galehouse’s remains were never recovered,” Watermark reported at the time. Schweickert confessed that the men dismembered his body, disposing of his remains in trash receptacles throughout the city.
Lorenzo utilized delay tactics to avoid his trial until requesting the death penalty. Once he sought to change his plea, prosecutors allowed it to proceed so long as he did so “knowingly and intelligently.”
Judge Christopher Sabella questioned Lorenzo on the matter and more Dec. 2, advising a legal process would still take place. His penalty phase bench trial played out this month, culminating in Lorenzo’s sentence.
The convicted murderer represented himself in the case, which also saw Pam Williams, Galehouse’s mother, testify against him. She shared that “I want that man to get the death penalty and nothing less, period.”
“I don’t have a grave. I don’t have a tombstone,” she also said. “All I’ve got is ground-up hamburger meat in the ground because of you.” Williams watched the sentencing via Zoom.
Prior to the decision, Lorenzo asked Sabella if he could address the court. He was given the opportunity to do so, advising he was seeking the death penalty so that “I can fetch myself a new body and come back again in a fresh body.”
“We’re eternal beings,” the murderer continued. “The sooner I’m euthanized, the sooner I can come back. I’ve got better things to do with my time than to hang out and spend the next 15-20 years on death row or in any prison system. So that’s what I’m asking for; it’s selfish, but that’s what I want.”
“I don’t know if what you say is perhaps some form of reverse psychology, nor do I care,” Sabella responded. “I will not consider what you want in issuing my sentence.”
The judge subsequently handed down the ruling, sentencing Lorenzo to death. He noted that the families of Galehouse and Wachholtz waited 20 years for justice.
“Today that long wait ends,” he said. “In the words of Ms. Pam Williams, from one Italian to another, ‘vi condanno a morte.’ That translates to I sentence you, Mr. Lorenzo, to death. That is the punishment that you deserve for these horrific crimes.”
The judge’s reasoning was detailed in a 40-page order and Lorenzo was transferred to the Department of Corrections to await his execution. According to the Department of Corrections, he joins 300 others on death row.
