Kenneth Dessaure was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Kenneth Dessaure would sexually assault and murder his neighbor Cindy Riedweg. Kenneth Dessaure would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Kenneth Dessaure 2021 Information
| DC Number: | R05023 |
|---|---|
| Name: | DESSAURE, KENNETH L JR |
| Race: | BLACK |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 01/28/1978 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 11/06/2001 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Kenneth Dessaure More News
The evidence presented at Dessaure’s trial revealed that Dessaure lived with two other people in an apartment in Oldsmar, Florida, and that Ms. Riedweg moved into the apartment next door a couple of weeks before the murder. Id. On the day of the murder, another neighbor testified that he encountered Dessaure in the parking lot, and Dessaure told him that he thought someone was dead or dying in Ms. Riedweg’s apartment. Id. The neighbor asked Dessaure how he knew this, and Dessaure replied that he went to Ms. Riedweg’s apartment to ask for ice and looked in. Id. The neighbor said Dessaure appeared nervous and that he told Dessaure to call 911 because he wanted nothing to do with the situation. Id. Thereafter, Dessaure called 911 and reported to the operators that his next-door neighbor was dead. Id. On the 911 tape, which was played for the jury at trial, Dessaure stated that he saw Ms. Riedweg outside sunbathing, he went to her apartment to see if she had any ice, and when she did not answer the door, he went in through the unlocked door and found her lying in the middle of the floor. Id. at 458.
When the paramedics arrived, they entered Ms. Riedweg’s apartment and found her lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood. Id. She had stab wounds on her upper back and shoulders, she had no pulse, and she was not breathing. Id. After they rolled her over, they discovered that her throat had been slashed. Id. The assistant medical examiner testified that Ms. Riedweg had a total of fifty-three wounds including bruises, scrapes, pick marks, cuts, and stab wounds, and that her throat was slashed. Id. at 461. The assistant medical examiner further testified that
[t]here were five defensive wounds to the hands, three wounds that penetrated the trachea, three that damaged and collapsed the lungs, two that cut the exterior jugular vein, one that cut the liver, one that struck a vertebra, and one that cut a spinal nerve. [The assistant medical examiner] testified that Riedweg could have remained conscious for four to six minutes after her lungs collapsed, and she could have survived from four to ten minutes. Electrical activity could have continued for a few minutes more, perhaps ten to fifteen minutes. Multiple stab wounds of the torso and neck were the cause of death.
Id.
Other evidence established that several blood stains matching Ms. Riedweg’s DNA profile were found on Dessaure’s shorts. Id. Dessaure’s footprint was discovered in Ms. Riedweg’s kitchen, and Dessaure’s semen was found on a towel in her bathroom and on a piece of fabric from her bedroom comforter. Id.
In imposing the death sentence, the trial court found four aggravating circumstances: (1) the crime was committed while Dessaure was previously convicted of a felony and under community control; (2) Dessaure had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence; (3) the crime was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and (4) the crime was committed during a burglary.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1540341.html
