Defendant's words are deemed public

Statements Michael King made to police and civilians after his arrest are public records and should be released to the news media, a circuit judge ruled Wednesday.

Attorneys for King, 36, the man accused of abducting and killing Denise Lee in January, had argued that the records should not be public since they reveal the substance of a confession of an arrested person.

"Everything the court has been provided ... is not a public record because it does speak of participation," Assistant Public Defender John Scotese said. "There are statements of participation in the sense of being present at certain locations."

But Circuit Judge Deno Economou reviewed the records and said that they do not meet the requirements of the public records exemption and should be released on Friday, if King's attorneys do not appeal before then.

King was in court Wednesday for the first time since his arrest, dressed in a yellow jail jumpsuit and with a shaggy beard and haircut that looked as if they had not been trimmed since January.

Assistant State Attorney Lon Arend said he did not interpret any of the statements King made in the records as admissions.

Lee, 21, was reported missing from her North Port home the afternoon of Jan. 17.

Her body was found two days later in a shallow grave six miles from her home. She left behind a husband and two young boys.

A lab has matched King's DNA to DNA found in Lee, say court documents filed by the prosecution.

While it is still not clear what statements might have been recorded, King's cousin, Harold Muxlow, visited him in custody just hours after King's arrest and has said he talked to him about Lee.

Muxlow said King insisted that he was driving in North Port on the day of Lee's kidnapping and stopped to help a driver, who pulled a gun on him.

King maintained his innocence, saying another man had abducted King and Lee at gunpoint, Muxlow said.

Judge Economou has previously denied defense motions for a 60-day delay in releasing public records.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against King on the murder charge, and have also filed kidnapping and sexual battery charges against him. He is being held in the Sarasota County jail without bail.