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Witness Airs Anger In Torture Trial

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: Nov 3, 2005

TAMPA - Of the seven men who came to court to testify that Steven Lorenzo drugged, raped and tortured them, it was the former street hustler who looked as if he was trying to burn a hole through Lorenzo with his stare.

Known in Lorenzo's indictment as "Victim #4," the small-framed, dark haired 24-year-old was a simmering, tight bundle of rage as he walked into courtroom 15A of the federal courthouse and fixed an angry gaze on Lorenzo as the defendant sat, bespectacled and in a light gray suit, next to his attorney.

As he has since his trial began last week, Lorenzo took copious notes on a yellow legal pad, looking relaxed but engaged as he talked frequently with his attorney, Donald Harrison. Jurors can't see the shackles on his ankles.

Before the incident in December 2002, Victim #4 said, he knew Lorenzo and had seen him five or six times. "He must have a double personality or something," said Victim #4, whose name is being withheld by The Tampa Tribune. "I used to go to his house. We'd do crystal meth and play around. He'd throw me some money, and I'd leave."

Victim #4 said he told Lorenzo he had a girlfriend, a transsexual, and that he was thinking of getting out of hustling.

He said he never thought Lorenzo was capable of doing what he did. Victim #4 doesn't remember the date. "All I remember is he had a Christmas tree up."

He had encountered Lorenzo on Kennedy Boulevard, he said, and Lorenzo gave him $200 for crack cocaine. They went to Lorenzo's house, where they smoked crack and Lorenzo made mixed drinks. "I said I wanted to stop doing this," he said. He said Lorenzo told him he could get $500 by making a kinky video. "I said, all right, I'd do it," Victim #4 testified. "He said there would be hand tying involved. He didn't say anything about feet."

Without going into details about how the restraints got there, Victim #4 said he struggled but was physically unable to resist. "All I remember is passing out.

"I remember waking up on the bed all messed up," he said. He didn't remember being photographed, spread-eagle, naked on the bed in one shot, his arms tied to his body in another. The photographs, found on Lorenzo's home computer, were flashed on monitors in the courtroom. "Can he see this?" Victim #4 asked. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli didn't answer, telling the witness just to answer the questions.

In one picture, he is wearing a gas mask, but he doesn't remember that, either.

When he woke up, "I struggled to break loose so much that I was crying myself to sleep," the witness testified. "He'd smack me in the head real hard."

He said he was afraid and, "I started telling him that I loved him and all this crazy stuff because I thought I was going to die. ... I must have had an angel with me that day because I thought I was going to die."

He didn't go to police right away. Instead he went with Lorenzo to Taco Bell. "I wanted money to go smoke," he said. Lorenzo gave him $100.

He said he didn't tell anyone what happened until he met a drag queen. "I remember trying to hustle her, but I was disgusted, maybe because she was ugly," he said. But they began to talk and became friends.

"I began to cry, to let it out," he said. "Something told me I had to tell someone."

Later, he went to Lorenzo's house with his girlfriend and tried to confront Lorenzo. "I picked up the biggest rock I could find" and threw it through the window, he said. Later, he was arrested but said he didn't tell police why he had thrown the rock because he was high on crack.