Nov. 6, 2026
“You Had To Go Full Hannibal Lecter” Judge Berates 77-Year-Old Convicted Murderer At Sentencing
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RSS Feed This week a jury found 77-year-old Robert Kessler guilty of murdering a Florida woman and dumping her severed body parts into McKay Bay back in 2021. Sentencing happened immediately after the verdict, and that’s when Kessler heard from his victim’s family and then the judge himself who said he had never, in his forty year career, seen a crime like this one. He said the murder was horrible enough, but admonished Kessler for going “full Hannibal Lecter” on 47-year-old Stephanie Crone-Overholts, cutting her body up in at least seven different pieces. Kessler was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 15 years for abuse to a dead body.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Friday, November 6th, and he offered to plead guilty to murder in exchange for a cheesesteak sandwich. He didn't get his sandwich, but he's still going to prison for the rest of his life. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Odd story, sick story, and it appears our listeners are going to hear robes. The judge also had a very What? Short... What would you call that?
00:00:36
Speaker 2: Colorful language.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: But he had a low tolerance for some BS from this guy. Yes. I guess you could say. It sounded colorful and it made headlines at the time. But this was ugly stuff. And the guy was being cute about just giving me a sandwich and I'll make all this in. I don't know what this dude's deal is, but this is an awful story. Yes.
00:00:56
Speaker 3: The judge actually called him out basically saying he was trying to be a cute grandpa when actually he was Hannibal Lecter. I mean, the judge really threw the book at him, literally and figuratively in the sense that he gave him the harshest punishment possible. This happened, and it was a really dramatic day in court this week, a judge calling 74-year-old Robert Kessler's crime unheard of. And yes, He compared him to Hannibal Lecter after a jury deliberated for more than 12 hours, two days, finally convicts this elderly man, not only of second degree murder, but of abuse of a dead body. He cut this young woman up and threw her, dumped her body parts in the river, in the bay.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: And when we say elderly man, Robes, you say 74. Your dad is what?
00:01:47
Speaker 2: My dad is 73.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: If I see Robach's dad, I'm saying when you hear 74, you don't actually necessarily feel like some old, frail, when you picture it, because 74 sounds young these days, even. Robach's the look of this guy. He is.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: He looks 84, 94, maybe. He is a.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Mess of just a crumpled up... You can't imagine him capable, physically able to do the things he's accused of doing.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: Look, he.
00:02:15
Speaker 1: Convicted of doing that.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Yes, and we should point out, he's blind now.
00:02:19
Speaker 3: And that was pointed out, but he gradually lost his eyesight over the last several years. This crime actually happened almost to the day, November of 2021. And he had complications that followed from cataract surgery in 2022.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: So he's blind now.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: So yes, he looks feeble. He looks old, but guess what? He was barely even seen in court. This man And we'll get into the victim impact statements. He refused to attend.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: His own criminal trial.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: He basically threw a middle finger up to the process from start, middle, and end.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: That's fair. If there was such thing as an asshole defendant, he was it, baby.
00:03:01
Speaker 3: Yes, so he did end up receiving life in prison plus 15 years. And again, he's 74 years old for murdering and dismembering 47-year-old Stephanie Krohn Overholtz.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: And yes, that murder happened on November 5th. 2021.
00:03:17
Speaker 3: And look, she'd been staying with him. I'm not really sure. It wasn't really clear to me how this living arrangement came about. He also had a young child living with him as well. And he was a hardened criminal. This dude had done time before. It's just, I'm confused about the living arrangements, how they even came to be.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: Who was this child? I still don't have a good handle on who this kid was that was staying with him.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: I don't either.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: She's been out of his home for a while now, but the judge even made reference to the fact that she was there that night. She witnessed the argument, and there was some argument in the fall of 2021 that led ultimately to Kessler's stabbing stephanie multiple times they said far more times than needed like she was dead after the first two stabs they said and he kept going then he dismembered her body dumped her body parts into tampa's mckay bay and look just i believe cut her up into seven seven different pieces is what was described can you imagine and her family her mother sat in the courtroom for most of this trial.
00:04:28
Speaker 1: Robes, this is, and the why of it, the motive, we keep hearing argument.
00:04:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was upset.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: What's the motive behind this?
00:04:36
Speaker 2: He was mad at her.
00:04:36
Speaker 3: Over what?
00:04:37
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: He was helping her out, was he not?
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:04:40
Speaker 1: This was supposed to be an arrangement in which she was needing help and wanting, and he did, Robes, and you see him, he looks harmless. You don't look at this guy and you see a threat coming towards you.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: No, not even in the least.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: And I guess they're saying, Robes, maybe use that to his advantage. to some degree.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: And look, he was initially charged with first degree murder. The jury rejected that and gave him second degree murder after the trial. And again, they took two days to come to this unanimous verdict. But immediately afterwards, every state.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: Handles this differently. Every jurisdiction handles this differently.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: But in Florida, in this area, in Tampa- the judge immediately went to the sentencing phase. And so we got to hear directly from the family members of Stephanie. And the first thing the judge did was address her mom and said, I want to thank you for being here. I want to apologize for the system and how long this took. Today's your day, and it's your daughter's day.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: Good on him. Good on him for that. That's nice.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: I thought that was cool, too.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: Apologize on behalf of the government. for what you've had to sit through and wait through. What, 2021?
00:05:50
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: It's been five years.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:05:52
Speaker 3: So Stephanie's mom got up and she initially addressed the court, but then she did turn, and they're not supposed to, but she did turn directly.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: And he didn't stop her, right? The judge didn't stop her, right? Nope.
00:06:05
Speaker 3: She turned directly to her daughter's killer. She said, my daughter was violently murdered and and her remains thrown away like garbage. Robert Kessler, you need to find God. You need to get down on your hands and knees and beg him to forgive you. And in time, show remorse, and maybe I can begin to forgive you too. No family should have to identify their loved one. When Stephanie's life ended, a part of us did too.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: Um, what can you find? And to that point, I'm always fascinated by that. What can be, what can happen? And we have a judge recently talk about this with someone saying, I don't think people are beyond, you know, it may have been the Tate brothers. No, that's Tate brothers. The other brothers. Um, it was the, um, the real estate guy. I can't remember that. The A team, uh, those guys, right. You remember? And I thought it was fascinating. They didn't take responsibility. And she said, I don't think human beings are beyond, um, being redeemed in some way. I don't think people are monstrous, but.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: You all- Had monstrous behavior.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. And to hear her say that, to hear the victim's loved ones say that there's a chance for you, I thought it was interesting to hear.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: I do too.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: And I think that that is, when judges make these types of statements, they do I do think they resonate with a lot of folks. And by the way, the A team, it was the Alexander brothers. I was just trying to get their names correctly. But I did appreciate what she had to say. And she did open the door for forgiveness. Now, Stephanie's son, he addressed Kessler as well about his refusal to come to court. The only times I believe that Kessler came to court was when the judge had to specifically ask him a question like, whether or not he wanted to testify in his own defense.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: But short of that, he did not come.
00:08:08
Speaker 3: Can you imagine how insulting that would feel as the victim's family to not even have the defendant show up in court at the murder trial to listen to the testimony?
00:08:17
Speaker 2: How was he not forced to listen to that?
00:08:19
Speaker 1: You know, I am not sure how that works. They can be so disruptive that I've seen them taken out. I'm not really accustomed to... Hearing them have the option of choosing whether or not to show up.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Right? So I thought this was interesting. Stephanie's son said this.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: After all that time, he wasn't even required to be here.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: Required, yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker 2: Somewhere along the lines.
00:08:42
Speaker 3: It seems the rights of the accused overshadow the rights of the victims. And then he turned to Robert Kessler. Mr. Kessler, you avoided sitting in the room with us, looking at the faces of the people you did this to. But you can't escape what you did. And then he turned back to the court at 74 years old. He may not have many years left, but whatever time he does have should carry the full weight of the consequences of his actions. And that's exactly what the judge ultimately did. But the exchange between the judge and Mr.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: Kessler is priceless. I want to read this because that's when he says, Mr. Kessler, good afternoon.
00:09:20
Speaker 3: And Kessler just casually says to the judge, how are you doing? And the judge says, a lot better than you are, okay? A hell of a lot better than you are. The judge was pissed and he was just getting started.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: I get that. Like you said, just getting started. But how much of this was prepared versus off the cuff, do you think? How much of this from the judge was just in the moment, caught up in the moment? And I don't mind this, Robes. I give a lot. We've got a lot of high-profile trials here lately from The Clancy, right? That one, too. Robes, we've, I've been really impressed by judges. I really have. Sometimes the attorneys can be hit or miss. I give them credit. I know judges often, and I hate these days when judges, every time they're spoken about on the news, appointed by a Republican, appointed by a Democrat. I get that. I understand. But Robes, they do, as much as we watch, they have a very important service. And Robes, they can offer some comfort to an audience, to people like us, and certainly to the families in a way that I don't think they get enough credit for. So I just want to applaud for a moment some of these judges and what they do.
00:10:39
Speaker 3: Yes, because this judge, you are literally going to want to say, hell yeah, when you hear what he said to Kessler.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: This guy.
00:10:46
Speaker 3: who just is flipping his finger at the judicial process. So here is what the judge had to say. She, referring to Stephanie, she was looking for someplace to live. And you played the grandpa with a cute young kid. And then you just decide to kill her in a horrible, horrible way. But that wasn't enough for you. You had to go full Hannibal Lecter and cut the body up in at least seven different pieces. Seven different pieces. That's like movie-like. That's like unheard of. 40 years in this system as a public defender, as a prosecutor, as a judge, I've never heard of this before. Nobody should ever see their child die. But for her to have to come to court and see her daughter's leg bobbing in the water, I'll never forget that in my life. I can assure everyone Tampa Bay is much safer when you're off the street.
00:11:45
Speaker 1: What can you say, baby? I mean, I don't know. Obviously, judges get a lot of discretion. I like when they kind of go off at the end.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: I do, too.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: When it's over, they have for an entire trial. Sometimes trials go weeks, months. They are supposed to play it straight. Make sure both teams are playing by the rules. They are the referee, essentially, in the court. Everybody plays by the same rules. He doesn't favor anybody. But when it's over and the jury has decided what this person is, That judge completely sides with that jury. Absolutely. And unleashes sometimes.
00:12:23
Speaker 3: And this is sentencing day. This is when the judges get to say what they've been holding in for all of these weeks. So, yes, he got life in prison, which was the maximum for second-degree murder, plus a consecutive 15 years for abuse of a dead body.
00:12:37
Speaker 2: But the judge was not done yet. No, he was not. When we come back, hear what he said to Kessler.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: Before he remanded him into the state's custody. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. It was a heck of a day in a Florida courtroom where you had a judge call 74-year-old Robert Kessler Hannibal Lecter. He was convicted of second-degree murder for murdering a woman who was living with him, cutting her up, throwing her body parts into Tampa Bay.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: And, yes, it was just a powerful day of victim impact statements from her mother, from her son, and from the judge himself. We went over what he said to him as he was sentencing him to the maximum, but then he wanted to address... He wanted to go back, what you referenced at the beginning of this episode, that moment when the trial began, actually right before the trial began, where Robert Kessler offered to plead guilty if he could get a cheesesteak, fries, and a 20-ounce Pepsi.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: Wasn't that, that got a lot of attention, right? That got a lot of headlines.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: It sure did.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Because it sounded crazy. And you think, is he serious? First of all. And I saw a lot of lighter comments made about it. How did that make the family feel though? I mean, that goes in line. That was before I knew he wasn't showing up to court. So that's in line with how he feels about the system. He doesn't respect anything or anybody.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: That's a really good way to put it.
00:14:21
Speaker 3: It was so disrespectful from start to finish, and it speaks to the crime itself, and that's what the judge was even referring to. I know it sounds weird to say after you've murdered somebody that you've been disrespectful to their body post-trauma, post-murder, but yeah, that's another level of evil and violence and just detachment. Yeah. that you're able to do something like that, that you're that dismissive of life. And he was dismissive of the court proceedings from start, middle and end. Like he just didn't care and wanted everyone to know he didn't give a rat's ass. That has to just be, that's salt in the wound for the victim's family, period.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: And look, they knew what was coming with the sentencing for the most part. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. What, what, I don't know. This is finality. Is it closure? What would have made them feel better to understand, need more of a... I don't know, hear him take some responsibility. I don't know, but this can't be helpful. His behavior can't be.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Oh, it's just awful.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: But so the judge wanted to go back and refer how this process all began with that ridiculous offer by Kessler to plead guilty if he could get the food he wanted. So the judge said this after he sentences them. He says, but before you go to spend the rest of your life in the penitentiary, I didn't appreciate that statement. That comical statement about that stupid cheesecake. It was inappropriate and it was rude. This is a serious matter, all right? So you want to have a cheesesteak? Good luck with that because you're going to Florida State Prison.
00:16:01
Speaker 2: I don't think that's going to happen.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: And that's it. I don't know. What a mockery. What a waste of time, of our energy, of our court system. Waste of a life. For what? I really don't know, right? We need to take a week. Really, Robes, it's Friday. It's Friday. And the last several stories, sure, we could have picked something else. We were talking about death penalty in Florida. We were talking about Meghan Markle's dad and pedophilia. Robes, we were talking about murder. We were talking about shooting in Tampa. We were talking about just death. death and just the worst of humanity. It's hard to understand. I think maybe we are, if people are following our feeds, they must feel what we're feeling.
00:16:54
Speaker 2: Right, exactly. So yes, this weekend, we will take a beat.
00:16:59
Speaker 3: We're going to take our foot off the crime beat, so to speak, and we're just going to focus on something completely other than violence, destruction, death, and evil doing because there's enough of that in the world Monday through Friday, correct? All right, so look for a brighter, sunnier Amy and TJ Saturday and Sunday, everybody. And with that, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Friday, November 6th, and he offered to plead guilty to murder in exchange for a cheesesteak sandwich. He didn't get his sandwich, but he's still going to prison for the rest of his life. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Odd story, sick story, and it appears our listeners are going to hear robes. The judge also had a very What? Short... What would you call that?
00:00:36
Speaker 2: Colorful language.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: But he had a low tolerance for some BS from this guy. Yes. I guess you could say. It sounded colorful and it made headlines at the time. But this was ugly stuff. And the guy was being cute about just giving me a sandwich and I'll make all this in. I don't know what this dude's deal is, but this is an awful story. Yes.
00:00:56
Speaker 3: The judge actually called him out basically saying he was trying to be a cute grandpa when actually he was Hannibal Lecter. I mean, the judge really threw the book at him, literally and figuratively in the sense that he gave him the harshest punishment possible. This happened, and it was a really dramatic day in court this week, a judge calling 74-year-old Robert Kessler's crime unheard of. And yes, He compared him to Hannibal Lecter after a jury deliberated for more than 12 hours, two days, finally convicts this elderly man, not only of second degree murder, but of abuse of a dead body. He cut this young woman up and threw her, dumped her body parts in the river, in the bay.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: And when we say elderly man, Robes, you say 74. Your dad is what?
00:01:47
Speaker 2: My dad is 73.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: If I see Robach's dad, I'm saying when you hear 74, you don't actually necessarily feel like some old, frail, when you picture it, because 74 sounds young these days, even. Robach's the look of this guy. He is.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: He looks 84, 94, maybe. He is a.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Mess of just a crumpled up... You can't imagine him capable, physically able to do the things he's accused of doing.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: Look, he.
00:02:15
Speaker 1: Convicted of doing that.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Yes, and we should point out, he's blind now.
00:02:19
Speaker 3: And that was pointed out, but he gradually lost his eyesight over the last several years. This crime actually happened almost to the day, November of 2021. And he had complications that followed from cataract surgery in 2022.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: So he's blind now.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: So yes, he looks feeble. He looks old, but guess what? He was barely even seen in court. This man And we'll get into the victim impact statements. He refused to attend.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: His own criminal trial.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: He basically threw a middle finger up to the process from start, middle, and end.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: That's fair. If there was such thing as an asshole defendant, he was it, baby.
00:03:01
Speaker 3: Yes, so he did end up receiving life in prison plus 15 years. And again, he's 74 years old for murdering and dismembering 47-year-old Stephanie Krohn Overholtz.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: And yes, that murder happened on November 5th. 2021.
00:03:17
Speaker 3: And look, she'd been staying with him. I'm not really sure. It wasn't really clear to me how this living arrangement came about. He also had a young child living with him as well. And he was a hardened criminal. This dude had done time before. It's just, I'm confused about the living arrangements, how they even came to be.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: Who was this child? I still don't have a good handle on who this kid was that was staying with him.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: I don't either.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: She's been out of his home for a while now, but the judge even made reference to the fact that she was there that night. She witnessed the argument, and there was some argument in the fall of 2021 that led ultimately to Kessler's stabbing stephanie multiple times they said far more times than needed like she was dead after the first two stabs they said and he kept going then he dismembered her body dumped her body parts into tampa's mckay bay and look just i believe cut her up into seven seven different pieces is what was described can you imagine and her family her mother sat in the courtroom for most of this trial.
00:04:28
Speaker 1: Robes, this is, and the why of it, the motive, we keep hearing argument.
00:04:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was upset.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: What's the motive behind this?
00:04:36
Speaker 2: He was mad at her.
00:04:36
Speaker 3: Over what?
00:04:37
Speaker 2: We don't know.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: He was helping her out, was he not?
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:04:40
Speaker 1: This was supposed to be an arrangement in which she was needing help and wanting, and he did, Robes, and you see him, he looks harmless. You don't look at this guy and you see a threat coming towards you.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: No, not even in the least.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: And I guess they're saying, Robes, maybe use that to his advantage. to some degree.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: And look, he was initially charged with first degree murder. The jury rejected that and gave him second degree murder after the trial. And again, they took two days to come to this unanimous verdict. But immediately afterwards, every state.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: Handles this differently. Every jurisdiction handles this differently.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: But in Florida, in this area, in Tampa- the judge immediately went to the sentencing phase. And so we got to hear directly from the family members of Stephanie. And the first thing the judge did was address her mom and said, I want to thank you for being here. I want to apologize for the system and how long this took. Today's your day, and it's your daughter's day.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: Good on him. Good on him for that. That's nice.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: I thought that was cool, too.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: Apologize on behalf of the government. for what you've had to sit through and wait through. What, 2021?
00:05:50
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: It's been five years.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:05:52
Speaker 3: So Stephanie's mom got up and she initially addressed the court, but then she did turn, and they're not supposed to, but she did turn directly.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: And he didn't stop her, right? The judge didn't stop her, right? Nope.
00:06:05
Speaker 3: She turned directly to her daughter's killer. She said, my daughter was violently murdered and and her remains thrown away like garbage. Robert Kessler, you need to find God. You need to get down on your hands and knees and beg him to forgive you. And in time, show remorse, and maybe I can begin to forgive you too. No family should have to identify their loved one. When Stephanie's life ended, a part of us did too.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: Um, what can you find? And to that point, I'm always fascinated by that. What can be, what can happen? And we have a judge recently talk about this with someone saying, I don't think people are beyond, you know, it may have been the Tate brothers. No, that's Tate brothers. The other brothers. Um, it was the, um, the real estate guy. I can't remember that. The A team, uh, those guys, right. You remember? And I thought it was fascinating. They didn't take responsibility. And she said, I don't think human beings are beyond, um, being redeemed in some way. I don't think people are monstrous, but.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: You all- Had monstrous behavior.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. And to hear her say that, to hear the victim's loved ones say that there's a chance for you, I thought it was interesting to hear.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: I do too.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: And I think that that is, when judges make these types of statements, they do I do think they resonate with a lot of folks. And by the way, the A team, it was the Alexander brothers. I was just trying to get their names correctly. But I did appreciate what she had to say. And she did open the door for forgiveness. Now, Stephanie's son, he addressed Kessler as well about his refusal to come to court. The only times I believe that Kessler came to court was when the judge had to specifically ask him a question like, whether or not he wanted to testify in his own defense.
00:08:05
Speaker 2: But short of that, he did not come.
00:08:08
Speaker 3: Can you imagine how insulting that would feel as the victim's family to not even have the defendant show up in court at the murder trial to listen to the testimony?
00:08:17
Speaker 2: How was he not forced to listen to that?
00:08:19
Speaker 1: You know, I am not sure how that works. They can be so disruptive that I've seen them taken out. I'm not really accustomed to... Hearing them have the option of choosing whether or not to show up.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Right? So I thought this was interesting. Stephanie's son said this.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: After all that time, he wasn't even required to be here.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: Required, yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker 2: Somewhere along the lines.
00:08:42
Speaker 3: It seems the rights of the accused overshadow the rights of the victims. And then he turned to Robert Kessler. Mr. Kessler, you avoided sitting in the room with us, looking at the faces of the people you did this to. But you can't escape what you did. And then he turned back to the court at 74 years old. He may not have many years left, but whatever time he does have should carry the full weight of the consequences of his actions. And that's exactly what the judge ultimately did. But the exchange between the judge and Mr.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: Kessler is priceless. I want to read this because that's when he says, Mr. Kessler, good afternoon.
00:09:20
Speaker 3: And Kessler just casually says to the judge, how are you doing? And the judge says, a lot better than you are, okay? A hell of a lot better than you are. The judge was pissed and he was just getting started.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: I get that. Like you said, just getting started. But how much of this was prepared versus off the cuff, do you think? How much of this from the judge was just in the moment, caught up in the moment? And I don't mind this, Robes. I give a lot. We've got a lot of high-profile trials here lately from The Clancy, right? That one, too. Robes, we've, I've been really impressed by judges. I really have. Sometimes the attorneys can be hit or miss. I give them credit. I know judges often, and I hate these days when judges, every time they're spoken about on the news, appointed by a Republican, appointed by a Democrat. I get that. I understand. But Robes, they do, as much as we watch, they have a very important service. And Robes, they can offer some comfort to an audience, to people like us, and certainly to the families in a way that I don't think they get enough credit for. So I just want to applaud for a moment some of these judges and what they do.
00:10:39
Speaker 3: Yes, because this judge, you are literally going to want to say, hell yeah, when you hear what he said to Kessler.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: This guy.
00:10:46
Speaker 3: who just is flipping his finger at the judicial process. So here is what the judge had to say. She, referring to Stephanie, she was looking for someplace to live. And you played the grandpa with a cute young kid. And then you just decide to kill her in a horrible, horrible way. But that wasn't enough for you. You had to go full Hannibal Lecter and cut the body up in at least seven different pieces. Seven different pieces. That's like movie-like. That's like unheard of. 40 years in this system as a public defender, as a prosecutor, as a judge, I've never heard of this before. Nobody should ever see their child die. But for her to have to come to court and see her daughter's leg bobbing in the water, I'll never forget that in my life. I can assure everyone Tampa Bay is much safer when you're off the street.
00:11:45
Speaker 1: What can you say, baby? I mean, I don't know. Obviously, judges get a lot of discretion. I like when they kind of go off at the end.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: I do, too.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: When it's over, they have for an entire trial. Sometimes trials go weeks, months. They are supposed to play it straight. Make sure both teams are playing by the rules. They are the referee, essentially, in the court. Everybody plays by the same rules. He doesn't favor anybody. But when it's over and the jury has decided what this person is, That judge completely sides with that jury. Absolutely. And unleashes sometimes.
00:12:23
Speaker 3: And this is sentencing day. This is when the judges get to say what they've been holding in for all of these weeks. So, yes, he got life in prison, which was the maximum for second-degree murder, plus a consecutive 15 years for abuse of a dead body.
00:12:37
Speaker 2: But the judge was not done yet. No, he was not. When we come back, hear what he said to Kessler.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: Before he remanded him into the state's custody. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. It was a heck of a day in a Florida courtroom where you had a judge call 74-year-old Robert Kessler Hannibal Lecter. He was convicted of second-degree murder for murdering a woman who was living with him, cutting her up, throwing her body parts into Tampa Bay.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: And, yes, it was just a powerful day of victim impact statements from her mother, from her son, and from the judge himself. We went over what he said to him as he was sentencing him to the maximum, but then he wanted to address... He wanted to go back, what you referenced at the beginning of this episode, that moment when the trial began, actually right before the trial began, where Robert Kessler offered to plead guilty if he could get a cheesesteak, fries, and a 20-ounce Pepsi.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: Wasn't that, that got a lot of attention, right? That got a lot of headlines.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: It sure did.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Because it sounded crazy. And you think, is he serious? First of all. And I saw a lot of lighter comments made about it. How did that make the family feel though? I mean, that goes in line. That was before I knew he wasn't showing up to court. So that's in line with how he feels about the system. He doesn't respect anything or anybody.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: That's a really good way to put it.
00:14:21
Speaker 3: It was so disrespectful from start to finish, and it speaks to the crime itself, and that's what the judge was even referring to. I know it sounds weird to say after you've murdered somebody that you've been disrespectful to their body post-trauma, post-murder, but yeah, that's another level of evil and violence and just detachment. Yeah. that you're able to do something like that, that you're that dismissive of life. And he was dismissive of the court proceedings from start, middle and end. Like he just didn't care and wanted everyone to know he didn't give a rat's ass. That has to just be, that's salt in the wound for the victim's family, period.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: And look, they knew what was coming with the sentencing for the most part. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. What, what, I don't know. This is finality. Is it closure? What would have made them feel better to understand, need more of a... I don't know, hear him take some responsibility. I don't know, but this can't be helpful. His behavior can't be.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Oh, it's just awful.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: But so the judge wanted to go back and refer how this process all began with that ridiculous offer by Kessler to plead guilty if he could get the food he wanted. So the judge said this after he sentences them. He says, but before you go to spend the rest of your life in the penitentiary, I didn't appreciate that statement. That comical statement about that stupid cheesecake. It was inappropriate and it was rude. This is a serious matter, all right? So you want to have a cheesesteak? Good luck with that because you're going to Florida State Prison.
00:16:01
Speaker 2: I don't think that's going to happen.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: And that's it. I don't know. What a mockery. What a waste of time, of our energy, of our court system. Waste of a life. For what? I really don't know, right? We need to take a week. Really, Robes, it's Friday. It's Friday. And the last several stories, sure, we could have picked something else. We were talking about death penalty in Florida. We were talking about Meghan Markle's dad and pedophilia. Robes, we were talking about murder. We were talking about shooting in Tampa. We were talking about just death. death and just the worst of humanity. It's hard to understand. I think maybe we are, if people are following our feeds, they must feel what we're feeling.
00:16:54
Speaker 2: Right, exactly. So yes, this weekend, we will take a beat.
00:16:59
Speaker 3: We're going to take our foot off the crime beat, so to speak, and we're just going to focus on something completely other than violence, destruction, death, and evil doing because there's enough of that in the world Monday through Friday, correct? All right, so look for a brighter, sunnier Amy and TJ Saturday and Sunday, everybody. And with that, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you soon.