TAMPA, Fla. — A man charged in a 2003 double murder that gripped Tampa’s LGBTQ community has been sentenced to death at his request.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella recently accepted a guilty plea from Steven Lorenzo, who said he wanted to plead guilty and be sentenced to death.

The death sentence was announced Friday morning.

Lorenzo long denied killing Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz inside of his Seminole Heights home in 2003.

Lorenzo told the judge he wanted to change his plea because he believed the end result would be the same, regardless of a trial.

Lorenzo represented himself and declined to have an appointed attorney.