Man convicted of murder by 2 juries pleads guilty, goes free and heads for Alaska
Published Thursday, July 31, 2008
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Stumble It!TAMPA, Fla. — A man who spent 14 years on death row in a murder for hire slaying has pleaded guilty — and is now a free man.
Michael Mordenti is now headed for Alaska.
He was convicted in 1991 of first-degree murder in the slaying of Thelma Royston. A judge ordered a retrial and the second trial ended in a hung jury. A third jury convicted him.
Prosecutors said Mordenti agreed to take $10,000 from Royston’s husband to kill her. Mordenti always stated that he did not commit the murder.
Before Royston’s husband killed himself, he told his attorney that prosecutors had convicted the wrong man. This was enough for an appeals court to order a new trial — then Mordenti agreed to a deal: plead guilty to second-degree murder with credit for time served, and go free.
Mordenti was released July 25 and on Wednesday, he boarded a plane for Alaska.
Community Discussion
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Sure would be nice to have a picture of this guy so we can look out for him. Just what we need, more trash.
What?! The NewsMinus staff provide useful information and do some research! Why bother when they can leave it google.
Picture of Mordenti
http://wrongful-convictions.blogspot.com...
Sounds to me like the guy was innocent and the plea deal was arranged by the state of FL to avoid having to pay him multi-millions in a wrongful conviction suit.
Ak mom, The guy was wrongfully imprisioned for twenty years, give him a break, nobody else has.
Gives me another reason to carry concealed. How many criminals are actually hiding in Alaska?
Maybe the state can hire this guy to take out the person(s) responsible for the caribou slaughter!
What on earth was the point of this article?
It just doesn't pay to be innocent anymore.
I think if the guy had Francis the Mule or Mr. Ed testify in his behalf , he would have been found innocent in the first place (I knew this guy looked familiar) ... but then again, in Florida - they only believe what they want to believe when it comes to circumstantial elements of a pertaining case...
First, who's Francis the Mule? I know Mr. Ed.
Second, Alaska can be included in that last phrase also.
If more of you would take the time to research something before blindly commenting on it, you would see that this situation warrants a lot more consideration. In my opinion, Mr. Mordenti was blamed for someone else's actions. It's a woefully sad state of affairs all around.
It appears that the point of this article was to give people plenty of time to figure out how to harrass this man out of the state. It certainly makes him appear guilty, when the actuality seems to be that he served 20 years time for somebody else's crime.
How many criminals are hiding out in Alaska, you ask? How long have you been here that you don't already know this is the place people go to disappear?
For those of you who want to know how many criminals hide in our area, try checking this site out. You would be amazed at how many criminals / Felons or even murderers we have as neighbors.
http://www.felonspy.com/search.html
Wrongly accused, imprisoned, and then hounded by the self righteous. The fact that he is coming here to get some relief from that makes me proud to be an Alaskan. Lets not let him down!
frozenfisherwoman-
I think that's the jist of most of these comments.
Thanks deadmoo (deadmoo?!!) for the link.
Maybe this "Good-Man" can Stay at "frozenfisherwoman" place, till he Gets On His Feet! After-All, she said "this situation warrants a lot more consideration. In her opinion, Mr. Mordenti was blamed for someone else's actions. ( Grins )
plead guilty to second-degree murder with credit for time served, and go free.
Doesn't look inocent to me.
seems to me that if a person wanted to "disappear", Alaska isnt really the best locale to choose...people stand out in Alaska...a large city with millions of nameless faces would be an easier place to blend in...
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If you agree to kill someone for money, even if you do not end up killing them, it is still murder to some degree in many states.
So he may be guilty of taking the money, but apparently he is innocent of actually killing the woman.
The way things are here we will probably end up electing him mayor.
yep, par for the course from a racist person like moose-
"Maybe the state can hire this guy to take out the person(s) responsible for the caribou slaughter!"
No wonder why there is so much crime in Alaska. Mordenti should get along here quite nicely.
If this guy was Native there would be twice as many comments by now with 80% of them slandering every Native in the Americas (see the posts for the "village hunters suspected of leaving caribou to rot" article- 7/30/08) I don't see ANY comments degrading anybody else but this ONE person, not the entire white race.
go to TBO.com and read about it. He states he pled for his best interest. Daughter of victim did not want to go through another trial. Current picture of him also. He came to Alaska where he has friends waiting him. Read their comment section.....
better yet go to www.oranous.com/innocence/MichaelMordent... for more info
LostAlaskan, Did you see somewhere that it said this guy was white? He may be Native American, African American, Chinese.... I've never seen him so I don't know. How about you?
I said it before & I'll sy it again....it seems the ones screaming & throwing fits about racists are in fact the racists that they claim everyone else to be.
If you Google this man's name, you will find a picture of him and articles about his arrest. Research before you judge.
i have no clue who this guy is, but first off they dont just let you off death row, in the arcticle is stated someone basically confesed for the murder, he might have been there ok i can accept that, did he kill her, it implies he didnt so all of you HATERS are stating hes guilty by association basically, cause he was there? as far as i am concerned he could move next door and it wouldnt bother me at all. so for all you quick to judge here tell me if you believe this is right. if you walking by a dog and stop and start petting him and then someone else comes up and the dog bites them, are you responsible for the dogs actions? to me its the same situation, different circumstance.
It amazes me that so many can talk about how wrong our system gets most things yet find it impossible to believe that the man is innocent and they where wrong in arresting him or taking him to trial three times.
aksunshine-
I can't find anything on TBO.com.
I am totally with endoftheroad above. And what you wrote seems to go along with it...
LostAlaskan: As a white guy, I'll gladly make some degrading comments about my fellow Caucasians:
I blame white people for a lot of:
1. Bad politicians (see Juneau and Washington DC for examples).
2. Bad food (ever eaten in the Midwest?).
3. Bad music (my God, where do I start?).
4. Bad dancing (see item three).
5. Bad landscaping (garden gnomes, for crying out loud).
6. Bad writing (only a white person could like Hemingway).
7. Bad sporting events (whitest sport: NASCAR; 'nuff said).
8. Bad religion (whitest religions: Mormonism & Unitarianism; again, 'nuff said).
9. Bad breath.
10. Bad Bad Leroy Brown.
Call me a hater. I stand accused.
Plead Guilty! Plead Guilty, Plead Guilty, if you say it often enough........
He ate Italian alot and did so after he was released. Stated in Tampa Bay paper that Alaska may not have many Italian resturants for him to enjoy. Does that make him Italian?
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