UPDATE: Michael L. King
DENISE LEE MURDER: MICHAEL KING SENTENCED TO DEATH
excerpts from the article by Todd Ruger – The Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune
10-05-2009 — “It is most extraordinary and extremely rare that one can actually hear such emotions in the voice of an innocent victim, who is doomed to be murdered,” Judge Deno Economou said at the sentencing hearing of Michael L. King Friday.
Moments later, the judge declared that King should be put to death for the January 2008 abduction, rape and murder of Lee, a North Port mother of two.
The judge’s voice wavered and cracked several times as he read aloud Lee’s pleas for her life and for another chance to see her family.
As the judge read from a long prepared statement, the sobs of Lee’s family were the only other sound in the courtroom, and law enforcement officers shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
Economou ruled 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 brain injury he sustained 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, including that Lee was kidnapped and that she was murdered during the course of other felonies including rape.
King remained emotionless throughout the hour-long hearing, as he had through the trial in August. His parents stayed seated as Lee’s family hugged and shook hands with law enforcement; the King family was then quietly escorted out a back door.
Outside the courthouse, Lee’s father praised his daughter’s courage to secretly steal King’s phone and call 911 during the abduction, and then leave her ring in the back of King’s car as evidence to help catch her killer.
“We’d still be looking for her; we’d still be looking for him,” said Rick Goff, Lee’s father and a Charlotte County sheriff’s deputy. “Justice was served. We had faith in the judicial system.”
Lee’s husband, Nathan Lee, struggled to put the sentence in perspective, given that just a few years ago he was happily married and raising his young children with Denise.
“I just can’t believe I’m standing here talking about my wife getting murdered,” Lee said.
Nathan said that he wished the execution could be carried out tomorrow, but that he knew it would take years of appeals hearings.
The story of Lee’s abduction captured the attention of the community and the nation, from the frantic search for her that night to the missed chances to save her, including a mishandled 911 call.
Lee was cutting her son’s hair on the lanai of her home on Jan. 17, 2008, when King abducted her. Her two children were left alone at the home.
King, a stranger to Lee, bound her with duct tape and repeatedly raped her at his home. He eventually shot Lee to death at point-blank range and buried her in a shallow grave in an undeveloped section of North Port.
During the ordeal, Lee helped build a case against King. She pulled off one of her rings and dropped it in King’s car so detectives would know she had been there. She grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911 and tried to give a dispatcher clues to find her.
While pleading for her life, Denise Lee never said a four-letter word, and never expressed anger. She said “please” 17 times.
King, 38, faced two potential sentences Friday: the death penalty or life in prison.
The ruling was not unexpected. The same jury that convicted King of abducting, raping and killing Denise Lee in August also recommended 12-0 that King die for the crimes. Economou was required to give that recommendation “great weight.” Five of the jurors showed up Friday to hear the verdict.
48 Comments »
This is wonderful news. Thank you for the write up. I’ve followed this story for some time. Denise was an incredibly brave woman.
His sentence won’t be carried out fast enough.
Thank God for capital punishment. Too bad torture is no longer an acceptable punishment for bastards like this.
Europe needs to bring the death sentence back!!! We have plenty of scum who deserve it, but they walk the streets again after a few years. So happy this evil SoB will get what he deserves. A one way ticket to hell!
The only problem with the death penalty is that it takes so damn long to accomplish. Really, we need to take Texas’ approach. Sentences should be carried out within months, not years.
I also have kind of a creepy feeling that this idiot has done this before. Who in the hell wakes up in the morning and decides to walk around the neighborhood until you find someone to kidnap, rape and murder?
For the most part you are right, but we still have many here in Texas prisons who have been on death row for years. i am all for the death penalty, but the system does sometimes screw up and we put innocent to death. Length of time on death row and # of of appeals is a slippery slope…I do feel that if evidence in irrefutable they need to walk the scum straight to the death chamber after sentencing , no appeals for those scum!! I am proud to live in this state we still have some of that old west mentality, hang’em high!
Finally. It’s been awhile since I’ve been satisfied with the outcome of one of these updates. While I think the end couldn’t come soon enough, I’m happy letting him sit in his own sour air for a bit until they put him down.
I guess it was the weight of hearing her final words and emotions that led to this sentence. I only wish we had recordings of every victim in their final moments so baby killers and the like don’t get off with next to nothing.
Goodnight Denise Lee
Thank you for fighting so hard.
I cannot imagine how strong you were.
I cannot fathom your depths.
The world is smaller without you.
Goodnight Denise Lee.
Thank yo for fighting so hard.
What a horrible story.. I am glad she had the presence of mind to do those things to help lead to finding her killer. It’s just a shame that so many people let her down. I hope the pain gets better for this family…and I hope King gets corn holed every minute of every day in hell.
I agree the death sentence can’t be carried out fast enough. But I imagine the hell they have to face being in prison while they’re “waiting” for it to happen. I also imagine the other inmates wont take too kindly to a woman rapist/killer.
Le sigh. I wish I could be the one to execute this POS. It would be extremely brutal.
Enjoy your stay on death row while it lasts, you bastard, and be thankful you get a nice painless shot instead of what I would give you!
What a brave woman! What a tragedy…I hate this for all involved that tried to save her, they will never be the same. Sad
This thing is just a monster wearing a human suit. Who gives a shit about his break up and his low IQ?!!
I saw Denise’s story on 48 Hours and she absolutely broke my heart with her pleas. RIP Denise, you were a vary brave and beautiful soul.
You are so right!! To me it doesn’t make a shit bit of difference if you have a low IQ, you murder someone you should die,period!! And please a bad break up i would have been able to murder 3 or 4 people if that was an excuse!!
Right there with ya deedee, I feel for all the ones that tried to help denise, except the 911 operators (imo) they can go take a long walk of a short plank (actually I kinda take that back they are probably going through their own hell and rightly so)…Well one would hope they are.
And if he had not been caught Denise would have been number 1 on a long list of victims. I want the death penalty opponents to actually consider what the victim went through when they try to argue about the cruelty and pain inflicted by the death penalty. How about we worry more about the Denise’s of the world and their rights and the rights of the family and the pain that her family will endure and a little less about the criminal? I know all the legalistic and intellectual arguments-if we stop protecting the rights of the worst, the rights of all will be eroded, etc…but we have gone to far. For someone to argue with a straight face that a bad breakup is justification or mitigation for what he did??? I am glad he got the death penalty, I only wish we could be spared the next two decades of whining appeals and the protesters who will be arguing that all life is precious and to spare him.
I just watched the BBC documentary “How To Kill A Human Being” last night. The description:
“Former Conservative MP, Michael Portillo pushes his body to the brink of death in an investigation into the science of execution. As the American Supreme Court examines whether the lethal injection is causing prisoners to die in unnecessary pain Michael sets out to find a solution which is fundamentally humane. To do so he examines the key methods of execution available today: he discovers why convicts can catch on fire in the electric chair, learns how easy it is to botch a hanging and inhales a noxious gas to experience first hand the terror of the gas chamber. Armed with some startling evidence Michael considers a completely new approach. Will it be the answer? There is only one way of finding out – to experience it himself.”
Three minutes in, the segment on lethal injections begins and he talks to Dr. Jay Chapman, who invented the conventional 3-drug protocol used for lethal injections in most states.
They talk about the procedure being done incorrectly and Portillo asks, …Could it then cause pain to the prisoner?”
Chapman says, “Yes it could, but my basic attitude is: So they suffer a little pain. Who cares?”
Fucking brilliant!
Amen!!
Absolutely brilliant. Good for them!
“And if he had not been caught Denise would have been number 1 on a long list of victims.”
This is why most serial killers are of above-average intelligence… the stupidest ones get caught the first time.
It’s funny sometimes how when people died only remember the best of them, it seems that I remember Denise being a crack whore prostitute which would put her in dangerous situations like this one time I’m not saying that makes what he did write in this saying that the news often skews things to make people look like angels when the blessing sophistry. I’m glad he’s locked up and make Sarasota little safer
Please eat a bag of dicks.
No Class. No Taste. To curse the dead is wrong and tacky you dumb f. You well on your way to complete assholism. Unfortunately you are not alone.
Looks like I was wrong it was a different girl that looks identical to herplease don’t flame me for having her own information
Sid Sarasota
Shitty apology, Rental.
IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT WAS THE RIGHT PERSON OR NOT. YOU ARE SOMEONE I WOULD BE AFRAID TO BE AROUND
CHRISTY PREVIOUS MESSAGE WAS FOR THE JERK RENTAL WHATEVER SORRY
nope …words fail me…
Start feeding the bastard Big Macs with plenty of mayonnaise & cheese. Give him a cofortable bed & a big screen TV with cable or dish TV. This is probably the quickest way to execute him…. make sure he has Coke to drink at all times, and access to hard liquir & beer….. ribs every Friday & Saturday night. Mashed potatoes with tons of butter and fry everything in butter…..
While I was not quite so extreme, this diet almost executed me, so it should be good enough for him.
Yes, I’d like to fry this useless methane producer now, but if I have to work within the system, I will,,,,
I am glad that the jury and judge were able to see through the BS and sentence him to death. I feel bad for her husband and kids, though. While the death sentence won’t bring her back, it will ensure that no other husbands are left without wives and no other children are left without mothers thanks to Michael King.
We are far too easy on the criminals in this country, an easy death is not much of a deterrent, what we should have is a list of horrific painful deaths that the relatives of the person you murdered get to choose from. I have started the list below, feel free to add your favorites:
1) Iron maiden
2) Brazen bull
3) Judas cradle
4) Wheel
5) The keep
6) Guillotine
7) Disembowelment / Evisceration
8) Scaphism
And you have the nerve to have a go at me???….you fucking fucktard
any 1 wants to have a go at janey,try my austin tx ass first.
Yeah, you’re going to have to get through me too. And I am sure I am not the last. Janey is not someone you mess with on this site.
WTF? Are you serious after the lashing you tried to give Janey…dude you don’t have to come to me,tell me where you are…
Max,
Textbook renter is a google hack, please delete both posts.
Hey Fred, have you been spying on me? I’m on that exact same diet man. Oh I almost forgot; death to Muslims, praise Jesus, peace be upon him.
It’s the real man’s diet!
No cook books or instructions needed.
I’m not a google hack I do live in sarasota, and I am sorry i got you a little pissed off…
Then you won’t mind if I edit out your URL link to that textbook rental website, right?
There’s a good little monkey.
Thanks Max
God Max I love you…so simple and so funny!!
AWESOME! I’m ecstatic! Justice served mothef! Rot in hell you sick son of a b! Your days are numbered ahole! Oh the joy. Denise what a tragic horrible death you had. God bless your children and family. I pray you live with joy in heaven. What a tragedy this is. Shameful wicked man. And what did you get out of this Michael? Couldn’t you have just jerked off to some porn, bro? I mean really how fun could raping a woman be. That would not be good sex. You are the ultimate ahole. You could of just stayed home and jerked off, but no you had to rape and kill that poor woman. Oh and when you took you had to have seen her to young boys there at the house. You bastard. Thoughts that you had would never cross my mind but say I was in your position going out to rape and murder a woman I think that upon seeing the kids there that it would snap me back to reality of what I was doing and I would just leave. I guess I have whats called a conscience. I guess you don’t.
Oh yeah. F U MF!
Eddy, sick fucks like him don’t think like we do, rape is not about sex….
i hope he gets fucked in the ass in every way possible,and by the biggest cocks in the joint,and let his SCREAMS FILL THE PRISON,
Your a bad boy Bo! ;) That’s why I like you!
deedee ive never been into this modern poliltacally correct bullshit.
Amen!
KILL HIM
KILL HIM
KILL HIM