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Steven Lorenzo seeks to speed up execution
Evan Axelbank reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - On Thursday morning, the man convicted of one of the most infamous crimes in Tampa was back in court.
The backstory:
Steven Lorenzo has admitted to torturing and murdering two men.
He asked for the death penalty in 2023. A judge then sentenced him to death in 2023.
Steven Lorenzo confessed to killing Jason Galehouse and Michael Waccholtz.
Prosecutors say Lorenzo and his co-conspirator, Scott Schweickert, who is serving a life sentence in prison, drugged, tortured and later killed Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholz in 2003.
PREVIOUS: Confessed killer Steven Lorenzo to learn his fate 2 decades after Seminole Heights double murder
Lorenzo’s death sentence triggered an automatic appeal in the Florida legal system.
"This guy is not in my best interest. He's trying to, he's doing something for his interests, not mine."
Speaking to the judge over Zoom from death row, Lorenzo said he wanted to fire his attorneys, who he is trying to block from seeking any kind of relief from his death penalty sentence.
"He's trying to negate my ability to defend myself because he doesn't like what I'm doing."
His lawyers told the judge he must prove he's competent enough to fire them, with the judge pointing out that all death penalty convicts must have an attorney.
"If I don't follow the process, I'm not doing you any favors because I would just be reversed," said judge Michelle Sisco of the 13th Judicial Circuit.
Dig deeper:
For nearly two decades after Lorenzo and Schwickert killed Wachholtz and Galehouse, prosecutors struggled to gain a murder conviction against Lorenzo.
That all changed in 2022 when he wrote a 147 page letter describing how he did it.
He asked for the death penalty, and promised not to fight it.
"What we see in the majority of cases are appeals after appeals after appeals," said Rickman, "people trying to do anything they can to stay alive. Here we have a defendant who's trying to do anything he can to be killed."
The question is whether, during an upcoming hearing, he can show whether he is competent enough to decide to waive all of his rights to an appeal.
If he can't prove that, legal analysts say he also wouldn't be competent enough to fire his attorneys.
That's why the state must proceed carefully, according to legal analysts.
"At the end of the day, this is the ultimate sanctions you can have," said Rickman, "And when you're talking about somebody's life, every court is going be very cautious to make they get it right."
What's next:
The judge set a competency hearing for Dec. 11.
His attorneys are asking to see evidence that a doctor found regarding his mental abilities.
The Source: FOX 13's Evan Axelbank gathered the information for this story.