Interrogation Details Grisly Crime

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan 19, 2007

TAMPA - Investigators didn't know what really happened to Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz, but they were pretty sure the man they were questioning could give them the information they needed to crack the case.

At first, Scott Schweickert denied he was even in Tampa the weekend of Dec. 19 and 20, 2003, when the two men vanished. But then the detectives told him Steven Lorenzo said he was here.

He then admitted he met Lorenzo at 2606, the nightclub where Galehouse and Wachholtz were last seen alive that weekend. But Schweickert said he left the bar and went home to Orlando.

Then investigators showed him a transcript of an online chat in which Schweickert asked Lorenzo for directions to his house. Then Schweickert said Lorenzo had picked up a "chubby kid" at 2606 and that the three of them went to Lorenzo's house for some "vanilla sex." Schweickert said he went to the bathroom and came out to find Lorenzo holding the victim in a sleeper hold until he went limp.

The evolving stories Schweickert told investigators were presented to jurors by Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Scott A. Albrecht on Thursday in Schweickert's federal drug trial. Schweickert, 41, faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted of conspiring with Lorenzo and giving the drug GHB to the victims for the purpose of committing a crime of violence.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations this afternoon after closing arguments.

Pair Labeled Kindred Spirits

The prosecution now says Schweickert and Lorenzo, kindred spirits in a sadomasochistic subculture, teamed up to lure Galehouse and Wachholtz to Lorenzo's house where they were drugged, tortured and killed.

In May 2005, investigators were still piecing the case together. The two victims had disappeared on successive nights, and although Wachholtz's severely decomposed body was discovered in his own vehicle two weeks after his slaying, Galehouse's remains were never found.

Authorities examining Lorenzo's computer had found pictures of Wachholtz after his death, posed in Lorenzo's home. With evidence of Lorenzo's sadomasochistic online conversations with Schweickert, they subpoenaed Schweickert to testify before a grand jury.

Schweickert flew to Tampa and testified on May 10, 2005. After his grand jury appearance, Schweickert met with Albrecht, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli, and Tampa police Detectives Charles Massucci and John Columbia. The 2½ hour interrogation was played for jurors Thursday.

For more than an hour, Schweickert stuck to his story. He said he helped Lorenzo put Galehouse's body into a trailer in his backyard, and he insisted he left Lorenzo's house and went home. He didn't know what happened to Wachholtz the next night.

But the investigators knew he was holding back. Gently, but insistently, they worked on the inconsistencies.

They pointed out he'd said in an online chat that his family was staying at his apartment all weekend because he wouldn't be home. They also pointed to another online chat in which Schweickert mentioned seeing a missing person poster at the Suncoast Resort in St. Petersburg. That poster featured Wachholtz.

Massucci offered to help him, but only if he told the whole truth.

Trying to put Schweickert at ease, to make him feel understood, the veteran police detective then lied about his own experiences.

"I had my first police shooting over 10 years ago, and I remember that guy like it happened yesterday," he said. "So I know what it is to be a killer, too. All right. Do you know what it is to be a killer? Or do you know what it is to be a witness?"

"Not like this, no," Schweickert insisted.

Massucci began to plead: "What are you holding back from me, Scott? What don't I know that I need to know that you're afraid to put out there … I read people for a living and I'm reading it all over you. What is it? Come on."

There was a long pause. Schweickert wept.

"He … uh .. dismembered the body," Schweickert said.

Lorenzo, he said, used an electric power saw.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," Massucci said, urging Schweickert to continue. "Did you help dismember?"

"He made me help him," Schweickert said. He held the limbs while Lorenzo cut. He helped put the parts in trash bags and dump them in trash bins across the city.

Schweickert said he went home to Orlando after that and was not there when Wachholtz was killed.

"You'd take a polygraph on that?" Massucci said. "I'm just asking."

The investigators questioned more on the details of the dismemberment. Lorenzo had been calm. The sun was just coming up as they drove looking for dumpsters.

'Wouldn't Let Me Go'

Finally, Schweickert admitted he didn't go home that day. He stayed at Lorenzo's house. "He wouldn't let me go," he said. "You know that night, he wanted to go out for another drink and I told him we're not getting anyone. Not bringing anyone back here."

Lorenzo, however, picked up Wachholtz at the bar. Schweickert, Lorenzo and Wachholtz went to Lorenzo's house. Schweickert said he tried to subtly warn Wachholtz away, but that the victim didn't take the hint.

Lorenzo poured drinks and at least an hour later, Wachholtz passed out when Lorenzo was on top of him, Schweickert said.

Schweickert said he checked Wachholtz's eyes. "They were dilated, huge as saucers," he said. "I knew he was dead."

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