Jury Deliberates in Florida Trial of Man, 74, Accused of Killing and Dismembering Woman: Defendant Had Offered to Plead Guilty for a Cheesesteak
Closing arguments ended on the morning of November 3 at the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Florida, and the case of Robert Kessler, 74, charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a dead body, went to the jury that afternoon. Prosecutors accuse him of killing Stephanie Crone-Overholt, the 47-year-old woman who lived with him, in 2021 and dismembering her body. Kessler has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Prosecutors say Crone-Overholt, who had come to Florida from Erie, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 2020, was living at Kessler's home in Lutz. They allege he killed her on November 5, 2021, dismembered her body and threw the remains into McKay Bay in Tampa. Fishermen found her partial remains in McKay Bay in mid-November 2021. Investigators say DNA from blood found in Kessler's house and on his shoes matched the victim, and witnesses reported seeing a man matching his description throwing trash bags into the water. Kessler was arrested in late November 2021. The case was delayed over questions about his mental state: he was at one point found incompetent to stand trial, and in March 2025 a judge ruled him competent.
The trial drew attention during jury selection on October 26. Kessler, who is blind and was then representing himself, was asked by Circuit Judge Nick Nazaretian whether he wanted to enter an open plea, accept life in prison and "be done with it." He replied: "I'll do that for a Philly cheesesteak, and an order of fries and a Pepsi." He specified a cheesesteak with onions and mayonnaise and a 20-ounce Pepsi, saying the deal would "save the taxpayers." The judge refused, saying he could not give food to people to enter a plea and that it "would be wrong in a thousand ways." Kessler withdrew the offer, handed his defence back to his public defender on October 27, and chose not to attend his own trial.
In closing arguments on November 3, the defence argued that prosecutors had presented plenty of evidence about what happened to the victim's remains but had failed to prove a premeditated killing, or that Kessler was the killer, urging jurors to separate the dismemberment evidence from the first-degree murder charge. Medical examiner testimony put four stab wounds in the victim's neck before the jury. The jury began deliberating on Tuesday afternoon; no verdict had been announced.
Source: Hillsborough County Circuit Court
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Tampa 的 Hillsborough 县法院大楼（资料图）。照片 CC BY-SA 3.0，作者 TampAGS，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Hillsborough County Courthouse in Tampa (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0, by TampAGS, via Wikimedia Commons.
