A Florida man accused of murder was willing to discuss a plea deal—but only if it came with lunch.
Robert Kessler, charged with killing and dismembering Stephanie Crone-Overholts, offered to plead guilty in exchange for a Philly cheesesteak, fries and a Pepsi.
His order came with very specific requirements: onions, mayonnaise and a 20-ounce soda. The 74-year-old made the request to Hillsborough Circuit Judge Nick Nazaretian.
The unusual proposal appeared to leave the judge struggling to take it in.
“I’ve never—in my almost 40 years—ever heard that request before,” Nazaretian said Oct. 26. “I can’t obviously give food to people to enter a plea, that would be wrong in a thousand ways. But I could guarantee you could have lunch today.”
Kessler, however, did not accept the offer.
“Don’t want an open plea,” Kessler later told the judge. “Just pick the jury. And then I want this cheese sandwich. If I get the sandwich, then I can go for it, but I’m not going to get it.”
The request was made as Kessler’s murder trial began. He is blind and uses a wheelchair.
Prosecutors allege Kessler stabbed Crone-Overholts four times, including once in the neck, then dismembered her body into at least seven pieces and dumped the remains into a bay, according to Court TV. Kessler has pleaded not guilty.
Kessler’s attorney, Maria Dunker, told the outlet there was insufficient evidence establishing how Crone-Overholts died or proving that Kessler was responsible. He had initially sought to represent himself before deciding to keep Dunker as his lawyer.
Dunker did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.
The disturbing case began on Nov. 11, 2021, when a person reported seeing a human leg floating in Tampa’s McKay Bay, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Oxygen.
The right leg had been cut off several inches above the knee. It also carried a distinctive tattoo showing three hearts and the names “Sean,” “Greg” and “Zach.”
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The next day, authorities discovered a severed left leg in the same stretch of water. As officers waited for a dive team, they located a woman’s lower torso and later found internal organs.
Detectives then spoke with three fishermen who said they had witnessed unusual activity in the area during the days before the remains were found.
According to the complaint, one fisherman saw an older man hold a black garbage bag over a bridge railing after seemingly dropping items into the bay. Another fisherman said that two days later, a man matching a similar description threw plastic containers and garbage bags from a Dodge minivan into the water. When he paddled over to one container, he noticed a strong, foul smell.
Investigators identified the remains as those of Stephanie Crone-Overholts, a 47-year-old Pennsylvania mother of three who had been reported missing and had moved into Kessler’s home in Lutz. During a visit to the residence, detectives saw bins in the living room and Kessler’s vehicle that appeared similar to containers found near the location where the body parts were recovered, the complaint said.
Kessler told police that he met Crone-Overholts at McDonald’s and invited her to stay with him because she needed housing. He said he could not recall the last time he saw her, but claimed that when he returned home Nov. 5, she and her car were gone, prompting him to discard her belongings.
But the account given by Kessler’s 8-year-old daughter differed sharply.
In an interview cited in the complaint, the girl said her father and Crone-Overholts argued on Nov. 5. Kessler allegedly told her to leave, but she refused unless he paid her $200. The child said Kessler then sent her to bed before he and Crone-Overholts went outside.
The next morning, Kessler told his daughter that Crone-Overholts had left with her boyfriend, according to the complaint. She noticed that Crone-Overholts’ bedroom smelled bad and said her dad planned to redecorate it.
Surveillance video later showed a man whom police wrote in the complaint fit the general physical characteristics of Kessler, abandoning Crone-Overholts’ car in a commercial lot.
“They got a search warrant and they took my van,” Kessler told WFLA Nov. 22, 2021. “There’s no evidence in it—there’s evidence that she had been here or something like that.”
Two days later, Kessler was arrested for second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
DNA testing later confirmed that blood found on Kessler’s shoes and kitchen cabinets, along with a mattress in his home matched Crone-Overholts’ DNA.
At his Oct. 27 court appearance, Kessler said he no longer wanted to be present, so an official escorted him out the courtroom, Court TV reported.