By Todd Ruger
Published: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Circuit Judge Deno Economou this afternoon sentenced Michael King to die for the killing of Denise Amber Lee after a horrifying abduction and rape.
The judge sat behind the bench and read his written ruling, about 45 pages that detailed how he weighed all the aggravating and mitigating factors that went into his decision.
In the end, Economou declared that the aggravating factors that support a death sentence outweighed the mitigating factors that could have led to a sentence of life in prison. The judge considered King’s low IQ, a past brain injury while sledding as a child, and the fact he was depressed due to a relationship break-up and a foreclosure on his home.
But the judge ultimately placed more weight on the heinous, premeditated nature of the crime, that Lee was kidnapped, and that she was murdered during the course of other felonies including rape.
In the courtroom were Lee’s family, the law enforcement officers that helped catch King and half of the jurors who convicted King of first-degree murder in August.
Economou delivered his sentence at 2:45 p.m.
He paid special attention to Denise Lee’s screams for help and pleadings for her life on a 911 recording during the abduction: “I just want to see my family. I just want to see my family again, please,” she said in a taped 911 call during her abduction.
The story of Lee’s abduction captured attention of the community, from the frantic search for her that night to the missed chances to save her, including a mishandled 911 call.
The daughter of a Charlotte County sheriff’s deputy, Lee was on the back lanai in January 2008, cutting her son’s hair, when King abducted her in his green Camaro. Her two children were left home alone.
King, a stranger to Lee, bound her with duct tape and repeatedly raped her at his home. He eventually shot Lee dead at point-blank range and buried her in a shallow grave in undeveloped section of North Port.
Published: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Circuit Judge Deno Economou this afternoon sentenced Michael King to die for the killing of Denise Amber Lee after a horrifying abduction and rape.
The judge sat behind the bench and read his written ruling, about 45 pages that detailed how he weighed all the aggravating and mitigating factors that went into his decision.
In the end, Economou declared that the aggravating factors that support a death sentence outweighed the mitigating factors that could have led to a sentence of life in prison. The judge considered King’s low IQ, a past brain injury while sledding as a child, and the fact he was depressed due to a relationship break-up and a foreclosure on his home.
But the judge ultimately placed more weight on the heinous, premeditated nature of the crime, that Lee was kidnapped, and that she was murdered during the course of other felonies including rape.
In the courtroom were Lee’s family, the law enforcement officers that helped catch King and half of the jurors who convicted King of first-degree murder in August.
Economou delivered his sentence at 2:45 p.m.
He paid special attention to Denise Lee’s screams for help and pleadings for her life on a 911 recording during the abduction: “I just want to see my family. I just want to see my family again, please,” she said in a taped 911 call during her abduction.
The story of Lee’s abduction captured attention of the community, from the frantic search for her that night to the missed chances to save her, including a mishandled 911 call.
The daughter of a Charlotte County sheriff’s deputy, Lee was on the back lanai in January 2008, cutting her son’s hair, when King abducted her in his green Camaro. Her two children were left home alone.
King, a stranger to Lee, bound her with duct tape and repeatedly raped her at his home. He eventually shot Lee dead at point-blank range and buried her in a shallow grave in undeveloped section of North Port.
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2 comments:
Please execute him twice, if possible. Then throw his body in the trash or feed it to the dogs.
Id pay any amount of money to be in that scumbags cell and just beat his ass all day long
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