Lorenzo Gets 200 Years

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 28, 2006

TAMPA - Steven Lorenzo smirked Friday when a judge called him a "psychopathic predator" and sentenced him to 200 years in federal prison.

Lorenzo chuckled and shook his head when one of his victims, Albert Perkins, told him he hopes he will be haunted every day by the screams of those he tortured, raped and killed.

But when it was his turn to speak, his last chance to defend himself or beg for mercy, Lorenzo declined. He has lots to say, he told U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara, but that will come later.

"Enigmatic to the end," the judge sneered.

In a blistering indictment delivered from the bench, Lazzara said that in his 35 years in the criminal justice system, he thought he had seen everything. But nothing, he added, prepared him for the depravity of this case. "I can say without shame that I was shell-shocked."

Lorenzo, the judge said, "has shown and continues to show, even now, absolutely no remorse and no regret for his criminal conduct. ... He created a veritable chamber of horrors in his house in Seminole Heights."

Lazzara said Lorenzo's actions were "part of a continuing pattern of perversion.

"One wonders how many other victims are really out there," he said.

The judge said he searched for a word to describe Lorenzo's actions. "Cruel, hideous, despicable, malicious, evil, vile," he said. But none of those words does justice, he added. "The only word to describe this evidence is indescribable."

Lorenzo was convicted in November of nine counts of giving a date-rape drug with the intent of committing a crime of violence, and one count of conspiracy. Evidence in his federal trial showed that he drugged and sexually tortured nine men, two of whom died.

Defense attorney Donald Harrison argued that Lorenzo should be sentenced for the drug charges on which he was convicted, and that the allegations of murder, rape and torture should not be a starting point for calculating a sentence.

Lazzara was unmoved. "There's no question in my mind, not only by a preponderance of the evidence, but beyond a reasonable doubt, that murder, sexual battery and kidnapping occurred in this case," he said.

Lazzara said that if he were a circuit court judge and the prosecution had brought capital murder charges, he thinks the government would have no trouble establishing the presence of four aggravating factors - facets of the case legally required for a death sentence.

The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office has said it was pursuing possible murder charges, but officials won't say where that case stands. Murder charges usually are not prosecuted in federal court.

During Lorenzo's federal trial, witnesses testified that the defendant met them in bars and lured them to his house, where he gave them drinks laced with drugs, and, after they passed out, tied them up, beat them and raped them. The prosecution also said Lorenzo teamed up with a kindred spirit in an underground sadomasochistic subculture, Scott Schweickert, and killed two men, Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz.

Lorenzo lived in a world of submissive and dominant men who delighted in pain and agony. He prowled the Internet where he met men who wanted to be raped and plotted with others to find unwitting victims.

One of those, Perkins, stepped forward Friday in court. The Tampa Tribune has a policy of not publishing the names of sexual assault victims, but Perkins gave permission for his name to be used.

Reading from a prepared statement, Perkins told Lorenzo, "I stand before you today to free myself from the reign of terror you brought to my life, the pain and the fear, the sleepless nights, the nightmares."

With Lorenzo smiling and shaking his head, Perkins continued, "I hope each time you wake up to face a new day, you will hear the screams of all your victims. I hope you feel the fear as we did, as we begged and pleaded for mercy.

"Tonight, for the first time in years, I know I'll rest knowing that the promise I made to you came true, that you are now locked in a cell, afraid, alone and unable to hurt anyone anymore."

Asked later to explain his client's laughter, Harrison said it was partly nervousness and partly because Lorenzo knew what was going to happen in court. "He goes, 'What a surprise that is. Ha ha ha,' " Harrison said.

The judge had no tolerance for Lorenzo's attitude. After praising the work of investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Tampa police, as well as the U.S. attorney's office, Harrison and the jury, Lazzara turned to the defendant and said, "As for you, Mr. Lorenzo, with a smirk on your face, you deserve no commendation. All you merit is society's utter condemnation and contempt for the despicable and unspeakable acts."

Another of Lorenzo's victims told the court, "The whole situation screwed up my life. The nightmares, the pain, the anguish, the anxiety attacks. It sucks. But I'm glad that nobody is going to have to go through this again."

Ruth Wachholtz, the mother of Michael Wachholtz, one of the men who was killed, said: "I think the maximum possible sentence should be applied to this person. He took something away from not just me but everyone."

Her other son, Stephen, turned to Lorenzo and said angrily: "Dude, you took my brother from me, and that was a mistake. That was the biggest mistake you could make. And I wish you the worst in prison. The worst."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.