TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Jury selection has begun in the Tampa, Fla., murder trial of a sex offender accused of killing a 13-year-old girl three years ago.
David Lee Onstott, 40, is accused of taking Sarah Michelle Lunde from her home on April 9, 2005, with her body found a week later in an abandoned fish farm. Onstott faces first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery charges that could send him to jail for life, the Tampa Tribune reported Monday.
He won't face the death penalty as the result of last year's ruling by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta throwing out Onstott's confession, which came after interrogating detectives ignored his requests for an attorney. Ficarrotta also threw out other Onstott statements to his mother and his cell mate.
But prosecutors said they're still confident they have other potentially incriminating statements and behaviors by Onstott, who dated Lunde's mother and had been in the home recently.
