Twice-convicted murderer and rapist Steven Wolf will be the third Monroe County case currently on Florida’s Death Row, following a sentencing order handed down by Judge Mark Jones on June 29.
The 62-year-old Wolf was convicted on Jan. 24 for the 2018 torture, rape and murder of 51-year-old Michelle Osborne on Nov. 21, 2018. Osborne’s nude body was found that afternoon in the woods near the Vaca Cut Bridge, along with a trail of broken vegetation and broken vehicle parts as if a car had driven through the area.
Autopsy reports indicated that Osborne, who was homeless and living in Marathon, was strangled and sexually assaulted.
Not long after Osborne’s body was discovered, investigators found Wolf’s van in Marathon’s K-Mart plaza. Missing parts similar to those found in the woods, it had branches stuck underneath it, and investigators discovered blood inside. Blood-soaked sheets were soon found in Dumpsters throughout town.
After less than five hours of deliberation, a 12-member jury unanimously found Wolf guilty on charges of first degree murder, sexual battery – including using an object to vaginally and anally penetrate Osborne – and tampering with physical evidence.
During the penalty phase of the trial the following day, the jury took less than 90 minutes to unanimously find the murder to be “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” and unanimously found that Wolf should be sentenced to death with aggravating factors outweighing any mitigating factors. According to minutes from the penalty phase, “(Wolf) want(ed) no mitigation presented on his behalf.”
Wolf’s murder conviction is not his first. In 1976, at the age of 15, he was charged with first-degree murder for his involvement with a group of teenagers who killed 77-year-old Enrico Flory and robbed him of his Social Security money in Boise, Idaho. Wolf later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 1978, receiving a sentence of up to 30 years for his part in the crime.
Wolf’s case was prosecuted by father-and-daughter duo Cass and Cristina Castillo from the Florida Attorney General’s Office. Wolf was represented by public defender Robert Lockwood.
A database produced by the Death Penalty Information Center of executions in Florida since 1972 lists only one other execution from Monroe County. The Florida Department of Corrections lists two other inmates on death row for Monroe County crimes: 46-year-old Michael Tanzi, sentenced for the 2000 murder of Janet Acosta, and 67-year-old Thomas Overton, sentenced for the 1991 murders of Michael and Missy MacIvor and their unborn child.
