Jury to Deliberate in King Death Penalty Case

SARASOTA, Florida–Closing arguments are now underway in the death penalty trial of Michael King, accused of raping and murdering 21-year-old Denise Lee in January 2008. Jurors should begin their deliberations later today.

On Thursday, medical examiner Dr. Daniel Schultz testified to an execution-style shot to the head that caused the death of Lee, which he demonstrated to the jury with a wooden pistol. Schultz’s demonstration showed that the gun used to kill Lee would have been touching the young mother’s right temple at her upper eyebrow when the one shot was fired. Her right eye was ruptured from the force.

Prosecutors have already identified a fluid on King’s car consistent with the DNA of Lee. Schultz also told jurors, “If you tell me blood spatter was around it, I do believe the contents of the young mother’s eye was on the defendant’s car.”

This testimony is vital to the prosecution’s case against King. A murder weapon was never found and the defendant was never seen with bullets, so Lee’s bodily contents on the defendant’s car link him directly with the murder itself.

Defense attorneys questioned Schultz about the contact shot and the potential spatter and eye fluid on the defendant’s car, but stressed King himself did not have any of Lee’s blood on him. Testing of the defendant’s clothes showed no sign of the victim’s blood or bodily fluid.

In other testimony, a supervisor with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Department forensic unit testified about the gravesite where investigators found Lee’s body. Louis Wood, who is also a trained archeologist, testified that the grave area looked different from other vegetation in the area even on first observation.

Investigators dug three feet, three inches from the surface of the soil and encountered the right shoulder of the victim. Lee was nude, curled in a fetal position with bloody duct tape on the back of her head. Once her body was removed, the entire grave was determined to be 4 feet 1 inch deep.

The gravesite included new and fresh plant life substantially below the surface showing recent movement of the soil, Wood testified.

–Stay tuned to In Session for all the latest from inside the Florida courtroom.

Jury Sees Car at Center of Murder Trial

SARASOTA, Florida–In the Florida death penalty trial of Michael King, the jury view took place Wednesday of the dark green Camaro belonging to the defendant.

Jurors slowly walked around the car that had been brought to the courthouse at the request of prosecutors.

While some jurors took notes, the defendant was seated at a table, shackled at his ankles, but his confinement was hidden from jurors because of a skirt in place around the table.

In other testimony, Robert Salvador admitted he had gone to a shooting range with the defendant the morning of the murder of Denise Lee and had personally placed King’s 9 mm pistol back in the defendant’s car when their target practice concluded.

The defense, on cross-examination, focused on Salvador’s lack of truthfulness when originally questioned by police and even suggested to Salvador that he met King close to the murder site later that afternoon and shot Denise Lee himself. “Absolutely not!” Salvador answered. He allowed to stand, however, the question asking Salvador if he killed Lee.

That exchange created a vigorous argument by attorneys out side the presence of the jury. The result was an instruction to the jury from Judge Deno Economou telling them to completely disregard the majority of that line of questioning by the defense.

Chilling 911 Call from Victim Played in Court

SARASOTA, Florida – The trial of Michael King, a man accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a 21-year-old Florida mother continues today with testimony from a crime scene technician.

On Tuesday, a jury reading transcripts followed along in silence as the more than 5 minute 911 call made by victim Denise Lee was played in court.

Lee was inside the defendant’s Camaro when she used his cell phone to call a 911 operator and screamed: “My name is Denise and I just want to see my beautiful husband and kids again.” She also answers the 911 operator when asked, “do you know this guy?” Crying into the phone, Lee yells “NO.”

Prosecutors say Lee had been abducted by King and was shot to death with one bullet to the head shortly after this call. Family members of Lee left the courtroom before the tape was played, but Lee’s father Detective Rick Goff stayed, telling me after court, “Its my daughter…I’m not going to leave.”

In other testimony Jane Kowalski pounded the witness stand with her fist, demonstrating the banging of what she thought was a child’s hand against the passenger window of a dark Camaro, accompanied by horrific screaming. The vehicle had pulled up to her left as she was traveling south on US 41 in Sarasota on January 17th — the date Lee was killed.

Kowalski’s emergency call to authorities was also played in court and the Charlotte County 911 operator seemed to verbally repeat to others in her dispatch room what Kowalski said as she described every street the Camaro was passing, but that information was never communicated to law enforcement on the ground in the area.

Tammy Treadway, who heads up Animal Services with the Sarasota Sheriff’s department, testified her golden retriever “actively engaged” in a rural site in the North Port area the evening of January 18, 2008.

Crime scene investigators soon found sand and dirt out of place and blood saturating the earth. Investigators had found the burial site of Denise Lee.