Closing arguments begin in Onstott murder trial

TAMPA -- Attorneys are presenting closing arguments this morning in the first-degree murder case against David Lee Onstott, who is accused of killing a 13-year-old girl in Ruskin in April 2005.

Assistant Public Defender John Skye tried to debunk the incriminating statements prosecutors presented as evidence of Onstott's guilt.

Skye called it "wishful thinking" on the part of the state to claim that Onstott told his mother "I killed her" during a secretly recorded conversation they had at the jail on the day Sarah Lunde's body was found.

Many parts of the conversation were unintelligible -- including that part, Skye said.

"You can't hear that, I submit," he said.

Skye said it was also unclear what Onstott was referring to when he told his estranged wife in a recorded jail phone call that he had broken every one of the Ten Commandments. Skye said Onstott could have been talking about his child that a former girlfriend had aborted.

"It's kind of cryptic," Skye said of the comment.

Skye took aim at a former jailhouse guard's contention that Onstott admitted to him that he had choked Sarah to death. He noted that former Deputy Brian Herndon did not tell anyone about the confession until 11 months later and had not recorded the statement in his notes.

The defense attorney said Herndon was not telling the truth.

Prosecutors will argue that Onstott, a registered sexual offender, came to Sarah's home early April 10, 2005, looking to have "a booty call" with Sarah's mother. Her mother wasn't home, and a struggle ensued with Sarah, prosecutors contend. They say Onstott choked Sarah in her mobile home and then beat her head severely somewhere else.

Her body was found April 16, 2005, in an abandoned fish farm pond about a half-mile south of her home.

The jury will deliberate this afternoon.

-- Colleen Jenkins, Times staff writer