Clearwater, Florida -- After nearly 30 years, a man who was wrongfully accused of murdering a Clearwater woman came face-to-face on Thursday with the man who is now confessing to the crime.
In 1986 when Janet Staschak was found dead, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Clearwater apartment, police arrested Tom Sawyer and put him behind bars for 14 months.
The case never went to trial, but Sawyer said the situation haunted him for years. "I've lived in fear every day that that when anybody came and knocked on the door that I might be arrested and taken back to Florida," said Sawyer.
However, more recent DNA developments in the case pointed the finger at Stephen Lamont, who confessed in the Pinellas County courthouse on Thursday that he was the real killer. Sawyer sat in the audience as Lamont's guilty plea was entered.
"I didn't think this case would ever be solved," said Sawyer, who also carries some bitterness toward the Clearwater Police Department for arresting him although he was innocent. "I forgive them, but … they were arrogant, they were closed-mind and they were very sloppy in their investigative work," said Sawyer.
The lawyer who represented Sawyer was by his side in court, and said this case can make a great argument against capital punishment. "I oppose the death penalty for the very reason that people in the system are fallible, that we make mistakes, and once we've executed somebody, we cannot correct it," said Joseph Donahey.
Lamont pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence.
Detectives found Lamont in Alabama and he eventually admitted to killing her, moving her body and altering the murder scene. He even said he drove her car to Tampa International Airport.
Detectives say Lamont escaped from an Alabama prison in 1986 with four other inmates and was living under the alias, Keith Minchew. Despite the fact Lamont initially denied ever going to Clearwater, detectives confronted him with his arrest in 1987 by Clearwater Police under the alias. It was then that he confessed.
Before DNA linked Lamont to the crime, police had their sights on Sawyer. Sawyer lived next to Staschak at the York apartments and after a lengthy interrogation, he confessed. His lawyers quickly attacked the confession and said it was coerced. After a six-week hearing, a judge, and later an appeals court, agreed.
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times two days ago, Sawyer told them watching Lamont plead guilty would bring him the closure he needs to move on from all of this.
"It would just take a load off my mind, and I'm just overwhelmed. I really don't know what to say. I want to see this guy that has caused me pain and suffering," he told them.
Shortly after pleading guilty Thursday, Lamont was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years.
