![]() "Ladies and gentlemen, you can't have it both ways," he said. He said jurors "must, should and cannot guess" about a lack of evidence in the case. He called Salvador a "gun enthusiast" who owns about 20 guns, and described shooting for him as "an addiction." He said police failed to test Salvador's gun. He said police failed to prove Salvador's whereabouts during the night Denise disappeared. ![]() Denise's body was found buried in a wooded area off Toledo Blade. Meisner said there was "no gun, no bullets and no blood" on King or in his hair when he was arrested after getting on the Interstate 75 ramp near Toledo Blade Boulevard. It rests with this table over here," he said pointing at the state's three attorneys. "I don't have the burden of proof in this case. "The state has failed to prove that Michael King put the gun to the head of Denise Lee and pulled the trigger," Meisner told jurors during his closing statement. ![]() He was overruled by 12th Circuit Judge Deno Economou. Meisner stood up and shouted "mistrial," on the basis of shifting the burden of guilt. "The only gun that's missing is Michael King's." But both Muxlow's (handgun seen by a North Port police officer on the night Deniseĭisappeared) and Salvador's guns we have," Arend continued. "Michael King's gun was nowhere in his car or on his person. Salvador testified that he put King's gun in his car under the seat for him before the two parted from the range. Salvador and King went to the Knight's Trail Gun Range on the day of the murder. "You clearly heard the testimony about the efforts (law enforcement) made to find the gun, and the efforts of this defendant to hide his crime," said Arend, adding that the defense claimed the gun used to kill Denise belonged to King's cousin, Harold Muxlow Jr., or King's gun range buddy, Robert Salvador. "He didn't bury her in a shallow grave - he dug so deep he hit water," The second time that Arend said King took Denise to his "rape room" at his home, Jerry Meisner, one of King's three attorneys, jumped up and yelled "objection."Īrend said the fact that the murder weapon, a 9 mm handgun, was missing wasn't enough to suggest King is innocent of the crimes.Īrend said King carefully covered up the blood spots in the woods where he buried Denise. He told the jury there was a "mountain of evidence" proving King's guilt. She had been shot in the head.īefore the verdict, Assistant State Attorney Lon Arend shared his hour-long closing statement. Nathan said he felt as if his 21-year-old wife was "holding his hand" during the trial, which included jurors seeing photos of Denise's naked and badly bruised body in the fetal position inside a 4-foot-deep grave, a bloodstained shirt and DNA evidence linking King to her disappearance, rape and murder. I am 100 percent confident he will not get to hurt anyone else," he said. "We wanted justice to be served by him getting the death penalty. She was still breastfeeding Adam at the time. 17, 2008, as King held her at gunpoint and forced her to leave her Latour Avenue home in North Port. "I think he's getting off easy," said Nathan, the father of two young sons, Noah and Adam, whom Denise put in a crib together on Jan. Once outside the Sarasota County courtroom Friday, Denise's widower, Nathan Lee, 25, took a deep breath. King, 38, sat motionless and expressionless - as he had all week - through the reading of the verdict. His sister, Amanda, 20, sat on the edge of her seat as a tear slid down her cheek.īoth, along with their parents, Rick and Susan Goff, cried after hearing a jury found Michael King guilty of Denise's first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery. Two hours and four minutes after he began waiting for a verdict, Denise Amber Lee's little brother, Tyler, 15, shook.
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