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00:00A woman was found in room 205.
00:11She's got blood all around her.
00:14There's blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
00:17I went back up and went 205 and opened the door and I could see her foot.
00:24She had a washcloth that was stuffed in her mouth and a shoe print on the side of her face.
00:30From prior incidents at the hotel, we knew there was pretty good surveillance there, a lot of cameras.
00:37We see someone walk into the room and he's in there for 14 minutes.
00:43He leaves the room and leaves the hotel.
00:46You see just this sinister look on his face.
00:50You really didn't know what was behind the eyes.
00:55He's just pure evil in my opinion. He always has been.
00:58He knew exactly what he was doing and the consequences for that.
01:02Venice, Florida, April 20th, 2021.
01:30police respond to a call about a gravely wounded woman found in the roadway in
01:36from an employee at the hotel and the woman's husband
01:39an employee from the hotel ryan reported that a woman was found in room 205 when he was talking
01:51to the dispatch he said that it looks like she fell she she's got blood all around her
01:59there's blood coming out of her nose and mouth she's got very shallow breathing he put his hand
02:05on her chest and could feel a heartbeat when he found her he also noticed that there was a towel
02:09in her mouth he pulled the towel out just tried to resuscitate her at that point
02:18we actually had one of our guys parked in the parking lot of the roadway when the call came out
02:29my initial thought was likely a drug overdose at this period of time we're having a real problem
02:37with fentanyl overdoses even to the point where you know we're carrying narcan in our vest
02:42when i first got there the paramedics and firefighters they were arriving on scene
02:49i went up the stairway with them and one of our deputies was already there providing first aid
02:57and you know as soon as the paramedics got there they took over first aid and i i kind of just
03:03stood outside the room in the doorway just to maintain the scene
03:10the victim's husband gerald straighter identifies her to the police as tina straighter and informs them
03:16that she works as a cleaner in the roadway in when they found her she was half in the closet with her
03:23feet sticking out so they could see her feet from the doorway so when they pulled her there was a
03:29trail of blood from the closet to where she was ultimately bound by first responders
03:36she had some trauma to her face and to her neck what stood out the most is that she had a shoe print
03:43on the side of her face as far as we knew she hadn't been down too long because ryan did see her chest
03:50rise he had been performing cpr so any signs of life our first priority is preservation of life so
03:56they're going to transport her to the hospital to see if they can save her
04:01as tina's rushed to the hospital detectives pulled gerald aside and asked him some questions
04:06we needed to speak with him we needed to get more information about some of the things that he saw
04:13because he was he was living there he was on on scene when this happened he was one of our best
04:18witnesses to put a time frame together it was 205 on her on her yeah a vacant list it was on her vacant
04:29list so she told you she was there at 2 8 49 and i texted her right back she takes both those messages
04:36at 8 49 and text her back at 8 51 and she didn't text me back so what time did you end up uh going
04:43and looking honestly it must have been right after 9 52. i went to third floor and i saw liz with the
04:50third floor girl i said have you seen tina at all she said she's on second floor i said well she's
04:56she's supposed to be down there but i don't see her anywhere i went back up and went 205 and um
05:00opened the door and i could see her foot he's got some physical disabilities so he wasn't able to
05:10actually go into the room due to his wheelchair but he called for ryan her head was right by the um
05:19water heater and she was kind of laying um half in that room and half right there in front of the sink
05:26and she was in a pool of blood under her head and it was smeared over here on the floor too um and she
05:35had a rag in her mouth like stuffed way down in her mouth that was wadded like this and stuck down in
05:42her throat something just didn't seem right with the whole circumstance she was there alone she was an
05:52employee we knew she was in there cleaning the room there's some blood on the floor one of our guys
05:58on our unit immediately went down to the front office to start checking video to see if there's
06:05anything unusual from prior incidents at the hotel we knew there's pretty good surveillance there a lot
06:11of cameras he calls me up shortly after like within minutes he told me something's not right here
06:22what you see in the video is tina approaches room 205 with her cart
06:34you see her husband kind of in the background and they look like they're having some type of an
06:38exchange just a verbal exchange and she goes into the room and her husband leaves the opposite direction
06:45only a minute later we see someone he walks towards the room you can see him look inside
06:55he then walks back towards his room which was 209 just around the corner
07:03and then he comes back and you see him walk into the room
07:07he's in there for 14 minutes
07:17he leaves the room and leaves the hotel
07:28he leaves the room and leaves the room and leaves the room and leaves the room and leaves the room
07:35what was really scary with that tape is you see just this sinister look on his face
07:46both before and after he enters the room he's smiling and he looks like he's proud of himself
07:52it was gut-wrenching to watch that
08:04investigators speak to the staff at the roadway in to learn more about the man staying in room 209.
08:12i interviewed the motel staff i was tasked with speaking to them about any interactions they had
08:18had with him during that time he was not favorably looked upon as a guest created a lot of issues
08:23with some of the other tenants the staff themselves were not comfortable being around him
08:30my wife clean cleaned uh i think it's 209 yesterday and said something to the management that
08:40something wasn't right about that guy she's like keep an eye on this guy because there's just something
08:46not right about him i don't know what it is he had a lot of tattoos which has nothing to do with
08:52the tattoos aren't the point doesn't matter uh it was uh more his eyes he gave me a look i don't
08:57know it was weird he had dark eyes his eyes were black so i called my husband before i went back to
09:05the room to give him his towels and i had my husband come up and then i handed the guy the towels
09:10he said thank you he went on about his business and he just sat there with the door open smoking
09:16listening to a lot of music loud music everybody that came in contact with him would he would not
09:21let them he was not a nice guy he would snap at these people and he would be that person where
09:30you look at him and he just start saying things to you and in a demeaning manner and you weren't sure
09:35what was going to happen you really didn't know what was behind the eyes
09:40the man staying in room 209.
09:58room 205 was where tina was located so in there we had again her clothing we had the towel that was
10:04stuffed in her mouth a lanyard that she had been wearing her hearing aid some blood swabs
10:11at that point we kind of focused our attention to his room being that you know he's likely a suspect
10:18and whatever happened to tina in room 205 so we were outside the room we start making announcements
10:25for him to come out and there's no response so we thought we were probably gonna have to make entry
10:30out of the room within 209 we located some more narcotics another towel that was bloodied and we
10:38also took the p-trop in his sink because we were hoping to find some more evidence that maybe he had
10:44tried to wash himself prior to leaving the hotel police fanned across the hotel property in a desperate
10:52search for the suspect from room 209 but he was nowhere to be found they knew it was a race against
10:59time to apprehend a violent killer who might strike again
11:10april 20th 2021 police are searching for their prime suspect in the attack on tina straighter when
11:17they catch a break through interviewing the motel staff they learn the name of their suspect steven
11:25have roca
11:30steven have roca has an extensive criminal history
11:35i worked that area he grew up in i started my career down there
11:39he was one of those kids that started with the vehicle burglaries and we kind of just dealt with
11:44him on that aspect and then it became every briefing he would do something or he'd be a person of
11:49interest in doing something he did go to jail for a little bit of time to take us away from there if
11:57you had a crime committed in that area he was always a person of interest at the time if he was out of jail
12:04as the crime scene is being processed detectives receive a surprising call about a potential sighting of
12:11this suspect there is a gentleman who was acting very erratic down by the regents bank
12:18he has his arms outstretched he's proclaiming that he's jesus and this is when the 9-1-1 calls start
12:24coming in we start hearing calls for backup from the deputy that responded to the bank down the road for
12:33the suspicious person to be honest i didn't really pay any attention when the initial call came out because
12:42our circumstance at the hotel but then when we start hearing our deputy down the road calling for
12:48backup another deputy at the hotel told me hey i think he's out with you know steven have roca who's
12:56our suspect here at that point i ran down to my car and i got to him as fast as i could
13:03we were really fortunate with this case and that we did have all of the community support that we did
13:08because they saw this guy and they said you know what he doesn't look right there's something off about
13:13him people thought he was crazy they didn't know if he was on something but he was getting down on his
13:21knees acting like he was on a cross not normal behavior for somebody at roughly 11 o'clock in
13:27the morning in front of a bank when the callers called there was one female that said that he was
13:33stripping down and maybe possibly fondling himself there was another caller that stated that he was
13:40on his hands and knees praying
13:42when i got there there was two deputies they were just placing handcuffs on have roca he was
13:53on his belly face down he was like trying to buck them off at that point i i came up and
13:59i helped him out i tried to hold him down and he just it felt like superhuman strength
14:06i remember i was trying to hold his legs and hamstrings down and he was like bucking me up
14:12i heard he was saying things like she and her and knowing that he had some involvement likely
14:18what happened to t-net i took out my my cell phone i started recording just in case he made any like
14:24spontaneous statements about what he did there stop stop stop relax relax relax
14:35he was trying to eat grass
15:01he was just delusional he looked like he was definitely under the influence of drugs
15:08stop eating grass man
15:11stop eating the grass mommy i wasn't really you i was done with you
15:17some of the deputies that were there knew him from past encounters
15:39some of the deputies that were there knew him from past encounters so luckily they were able to kind
15:46of talk him down a little bit so he didn't end up fighting them and they were able to take him into
15:50custody and ultimately he was transported to the hospital because he was so influenced by narcotics
15:56he was soaking wet he had no shirt on he had jeans that were they felt like he just got out of a swimming pool
16:05he obviously had something going on a mental situation or drug situation
16:10in the hospital they're checking his blood toxicity making sure that he doesn't have any kind of injuries
16:17so he's just there basically for medical clearance at this point
16:23at that point he was pretty sedated we collected his genes and you know put them in a paper bag for
16:31evidence purposes which it was later handed off to our crime scene people
16:35tina shoes are at the same hospital as a few rooms down actually steven have roca is too under the
16:46influence of drugs for police to question him about the attack on tina straighter who remains in critical
16:53condition investigators can only wait and hope that she will wake up and give a statement about what
17:00happened in room 205
17:05tina straighter is in critical condition after a brutal attack in the roadway in
17:19a few hours after being rushed to the hospital tina passes away from her injuries
17:26there's no easy way for us to tell someone that their loved one has died and especially in a manner such
17:31as this we all dreaded it's the worst part of the job
17:39i feel so awful for her and her family and what they've gone through i can't even imagine
17:46the the depth of pain that it must be for them
17:52gerald was what you would expect of a very grieving husband he was very emotional he really described tina
17:59as everything to him with the reason for him to continue living the reason for waking up every
18:05single day and when we were speaking with him you could just see the pain and the hurt that he was
18:10carrying both on the outside and the inside
18:13i think about her every day and what she deserves she was the biggest giver the biggest
18:24biggest heart the biggest genuine soul of anybody i've ever known in my entire life
18:28tina from what i learned from gerald tina just appeared to be a very infectious person somebody
18:40that was willing to help others somebody that was willing to talk to anybody that may be down on their
18:45luck and somebody that was always willing to lend a helping hand we learned that gerald had met tina at
18:54a poultry plant when they were both living in texas and tina had this bubbly personality and something
19:00just really stuck out and caught gerald's attention
19:05gerald and tina were really living out their honeymoon phase here in florida they were making
19:10friends they loved going to the beach gerald did have some health problems but tina was working to
19:15take care of him he used a wheelchair to get around and he was also employed at the motel as well
19:21sort of as a maintenance man so the two of them were really trying to build a life together here in
19:25florida
19:40initially at the hospital some things were not observed that were observed in the autopsy for
19:46instance the severe amount of bruising to her head and a shoe imprint that we found on her face
19:54with everything that's going on in the hospital with all the tubes and everything that was not
19:58necessarily visible at that time
20:02we want to know exactly how she died even though we have a lot of evidence pointing us to a certain
20:09cause of death we need a definitive answer we need somebody in a medical background telling us
20:15this is what she actually died of
20:22on the 21st of april 2021 sarasota sheriff's department hold a press conference to inform
20:29the community of the heinous crime that has taken place we knew that this was a big deal because the
20:36sheriff himself sheriff kurt hoffman had called a press conference
20:40this is the case this is the case when the police department was held in the hospital
20:43you could tell the sense of urgency when we were out there we knew that something very bad had
20:48happened inside that room by all accounts what i'm about to share with you is one of the most
20:56egregious crimes we've seen recently here in sarasota county so we are following up leads
21:01today interviewing people looking at video things of that nature so it is still a very active
21:06investigation we found out it was strangulation not by a cord or a rope but by by crushing force
21:19which could only be done by by somebody's hands
21:23not to our surprise havruka was uncooperative when interviewed however through the investigation
21:32detectives have learned that havruka did not know the victim i can only imagine that he may have
21:38spent his days perhaps observing her at the roadway in where she was employed and he was staying
21:46as you can see havruka is extremely familiar with law enforcement he is a convicted felon
21:52with 34 prior felony charges and 19 felony convictions havruka's prior crimes range from battery
22:01domestic battery by strangulation burglary with a battery battery of a detained person
22:08battery of a person 65 years or older and tampering with a witness to name a few there's no other way
22:13to describe mr havruka he is an animal he also has tattoos that depict his certain
22:22symbols of white supremacy the victim in this case was doing her job was certainly terrorized
22:33battered and now is deceased as this investigation continues we are committed to working with the
22:39state attorney's office to see that this man is put away for the rest of his life
22:44while steven havruka is in the hospital he talks to the police about what happened that morning and
22:52admits to some howering details of the crime
23:04i did initially attempt to talk to him at the hospital and he would not talk with me
23:09however what was interesting is that we had deputies that had to go with him everywhere that he went
23:17as an inmate and at the hospital we admitted to the offense on several occasions to several of the
23:23corrections deputies
23:28i went ahead and uh i got high and i was up for about a week and when i was up for about a week
23:33i just walked out the door and then i took a left and when i took to the left i sensed that there was
23:40a woman right there in that room because there was swinging these there but there could have been a guy
23:44and when i went there i took a left and then when i took the left i went there and she was in the room
23:51and i said hey and when she came in the room i hit her and when i hit her she fell on the floor
23:57and she fell on the floor i i started choking her and i stomped on her
24:02stephen havroca is released from the hospital and taken straight into custody he refuses to tell
24:16investigators anything else about that morning or why he chose to attack tina straighter so the
24:22investigators have to piece together the events themselves we knew that she had been kicked in the
24:28face because we could see the shoe print and we couldn't find his shoes and we wanted to know if
24:34he had done any additional evidence so we did a canine track we actually did several of them in order
24:40to try to recover any of this potential evidence and that canine trek led us to the wooded area where
24:46we located some of his clothing and some narcotics by his own admission he said that he had ingested
24:53methamphetamine in those in those woods immediately after the murder once he's now high on meth he
25:01exits the wooded area and starts walking southbound on tamiami trail which is a very heavily traveled roadway
25:10it was either the day after or two days after we assisted in canvassing the neighborhood back behind
25:15where he walked down gentian trying to locate video surveillance
25:19at one home right behind where the roadway is located on gentian i found someone that did have
25:27video surveillance of him walking down the street
25:32investigators then catch a break when habroka's dna is discovered on tina's lanyard
25:40the only piece of evidence that we had both tina and habroka's dna on was her lanyard which was
25:46great for the case because she had obviously been wearing that at the time of the crime
25:50and then the rest of the items were all just her dna
25:58his room we didn't end up sending anything off for testing at that point we were very confident in
26:03the case that we had and were limited with the florida department of law enforcement on how many pieces
26:08of evidence we can send so we sent what we felt were the most important pieces for them to test
26:13the detectives also interview have roka's family members to gain more insight into his character
26:22they stated he was a good kid when he's on drugs he's not the same person that he normally is
26:28they don't know what happened here but this is not normally who he is
26:35i know they're not a family of well means so i don't know how much they could actually help him out with
26:40him his mother his sister they tried getting him into several different you know out patient treatment
26:49programs none of them succeeded or he didn't qualify for his mom did tell us that around but she said
26:58between 9 and 9 30 the day of the murder that stephen texted her and it was just a very bizarre text that
27:05he was moonwalking and talk of rainbows and she said it made absolutely no sense and we found out that that
27:11was almost immediately after the murder
27:18while the sarasota sheriff's office builds their case against havrilka they continue to try to talk to him
27:25detectives have a confession from steven havrilka but still do not know his motive
27:30he flat out refused to talk to us approximately two or three weeks later happened to check my email
27:37and i was told that he wanted to talk to the detectives about this case
27:43so around lunchtime myself and detective patella went to the jail we went to the proper room at that
27:49time mr havrilka was brought in by the deputies he was a very subdued state compared to what we had
27:56normally seen him in previously and then he decided he was going to tell us what happened
28:11april 2021 venice florida detectives are interviewing steven havrilka for the murder of
28:18tina strater at the roadway in motel we were told that you wanted to speak with us i just want to tell
28:27you all what happened okay i remember i was working out that night and uh i went to go try and have a
28:35drink and clear my head a few up uh places down at this wally's place but it was closed so i went back
28:41and said all right that's fine uh went went got like a four pack of beer or something and just sat in
28:47there and and and and was just uh was kind of getting in my head which i'd been doing for a long
28:55time and it's a dangerous place well i went across the street to checkers and when i went across the
29:02street to checkers i you know it's just uh just the way the world is these days man and there was
29:08somebody there who was talking about drugs and then i started using it and it's just i ended up
29:16staying in my hotel room for for a week i didn't really leave i'd come out i was paranoid and
29:22some of it had to do with some drug use but a lot of it was already there everything inside my head
29:28got more vivid and louder because i wasn't i was that's the only place i was at i had this this voice
29:35in my head is was telling me that i don't belong here that i belong i'm meant to go home and i'm
29:42from hell or something they just kept repeating over and over and over and over and over again to
29:47where i would actually believe them the last thing that i thought that i that this was heaven
29:55and that i was uh i was from hell and i don't belong here and i needed to go home to my family and
30:01the only way i could go home to my family is if i did what i did and i just went outside and
30:08and i just picked the first person that i seen i didn't i didn't really think about it i went out
30:17and looked in i went back in my room a few times trying to push it off telling myself that this is
30:23this is this is not you don't have to do it and then just the voices came in my head and said this
30:30is the only way you're going to be able to go home and i just went and picked somebody and i'm right in
30:38i don't remember what number of room it was i ran in went up to the right went in a room and
30:43i did what i did and i don't really have the heart to go into detail to it right now
30:56i asked him why he had his shoes off because that was concerned when we saw his shoes off
31:01that maybe he had committed a rape against her in there he said no he did not rape her he did not
31:06have any intention of raping her and he said that he took his shoes off because he didn't want to leave
31:10shoe marks on the floor as he was cleaning it in the room where he killed her
31:16we know you were in there for about 14 minutes what was the 14 minutes i mean that's a long time
31:24because she wasn't gone yet i made the mistake when i went in i hit her and then i just
31:33grabbed her neck and i just i was joking her then i started worrying about cleaning whatever up
31:40and i kept having to go back and keep cleaning stuff up because i was sweating really bad and i
31:46kept it was stripping on the floor so i kept trying to wipe it up i had to do that like three times
31:57he was ultimately charged with second degree murder had we found out that he had raped her we would have
32:03perhaps gone in a different direction but yes there was definitely discussion about that and about doing
32:09death penalty but we decided that second degree would be the best course there's some
32:15statutory requirements that we thought we would have the best chance of conviction as second degree
32:24but before the trial could take place had roca begins to engage in self-destructive activity within
32:30custody several times he actually tried committing suicide in the jail tried drowning himself in the
32:44toilet he tried starving himself he tried hanging himself at one point all of which were unsuccessful
32:51the deputies were able to intervene he was put in segregation because he couldn't be around anybody
32:57he would start fights he was just uncontrollable from all accounts from his psychological reports he just
33:08would not communicate with the psychologist or the psychiatrist or whomever was evaluating him
33:13he would sit off in a dark corner and cover himself with a blanket and refuse to participate in anything
33:18so the medical staff had him evaluated and during that evaluation they found him incompetent
33:30steven avroca is ruled mentally unsound and the trial is postponed indefinitely
33:37detectors are worried that there might never be justice for tina and her family
33:50i really felt that that was not right because he told us in the interview
33:54that he knew what he was doing although he had a different way of thinking he knew exactly
34:01what he was doing and the consequences for that i absolutely think it was a game because he was
34:09clearly able to articulate what he did and he articulated that multiple times to multiple different
34:15people he knew what he did was wrong he recognized that he was not a stupid person by any stretch of the
34:22imagination he had been so familiar with the court system throughout his life he understood what that
34:29system looked like and what trial looked like and how to communicate with his attorneys
34:34i know that is a common play that is used especially with him being a known drug user so i wasn't
34:41completely shocked to see that i was more shocked to see that they kept going back and forth feeling
34:47incompetent and then incompetent so really for two years it was a wait and see period and there's a lot of
34:55frustrations from not only tina's husband but also from law enforcement because this is a man that they
35:01want to convict and they want to get behind bars and make sure that he is never on the streets again
35:09and for gerald it was a very emotional process there was no closure for him he wanted justice for tina he
35:16wanted to be put away behind bars it was not unexpected that he would be ruled incompetent but it wasn't what i'd hoped for
35:28there's no justice for tina and there's no peace for me
35:32i believe in the court system and i have to because that's what other choice do i have
35:37it is only in november 2023 two and a half years after the brutal murder of tina straighter that
35:51stephen havroga is finally found competent to stand trial they went back and forth for years on whether
35:59or not he was going to be competent to stand trial so when he finally was found competent i think the third
36:04time back in 2023 it was great in preparation for the trial investigators also delve into havroka's
36:14troubled past he tells me all about his issues after prison he said he got out of prison and he said
36:23that he couldn't really find his way he stated that he was looking forward to getting into weightlifting
36:32and exercising and wanted to be a trainer and become a better person but he just could not follow
36:41through with it because of his mental health issues he knew he had mental health issues he said that he
36:50heard voices in his head all the time he said that these voices told him to do bad things and when he
36:57would work out those voices would go away having known him basically since my career started to
37:05seeing where he was now can't say i was completely shocked by it but yeah it was pretty up there in
37:12far as the realm of craziness he is covered the top of his head his face neck chest back everything in
37:25tattoos mainly he got in prison a lot of the tattoos are a neo-nazi aryan brotherhood realm of tattoos
37:36he thinks that some of the symbols are religious and belief and not following those ideologies that's
37:46his explanation of it when he was ruled competent to stand trial this was really a big moment for gerald
37:58it was a mix of emotions on one hand there is some relief that this trial is finally going to continue
38:05and going to move forward but on the other hand he continued to carry the grief and the sorrow of
38:10losing tina and that was something that weighed very heavily on his heart you could tell it just in
38:15his voice and talking with him gerald didn't continue to live in the motel last times that i spoke with
38:21him and met with him it was a small home just a few miles away from where the murder had happened
38:28around gerald's neck he often carried a memory of tina with him he wore a necklace of her thumbprint
38:37and that was something that he said was a part of tina that would always remain with him forever
38:42on the 3rd of february 2025 steven havroka changes his plea to guilty of second-degree murder we found
39:00out just days before his actual sentencing so i was surprised that we were finally going to be coming to
39:07our resolution and i was very happy at the same time i was in the room and he didn't recognize me but
39:15it was very satisfying to finally get him to tell a judge this is what i did just like he told us
39:26he told the judge that he was responsible for her death he didn't really express any type of remorse
39:39i know that the state attorney read a victim impact statement from tina's daughter and yeah he he didn't
39:46offer any type of apologies just admitted that he did it and that was kind of the end of his story
39:52he was sentenced to two life sentences and that included some of the offenses that he had committed
39:58while he was in jail i'd say the stars kind of aligned on this case if we didn't get him right then
40:10like i said that's a very robust residential community who knows if he did a home invasion what
40:17what else he had on his mind you had a very evil man commit an extremely evil act for no reason
40:29and you had a victim that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and there was no other
40:35reason for it other than that we now have an animal that's off of the streets he's not going to be able
40:43to hurt anybody anymore but tina's family will forever be suffering with this
40:53so one of the hard things in all of this story which remains so tragic is gerald wasn't even here
40:59for the sentencing he had ultimately passed away and he wasn't here to receive the justice and to learn
41:06the justice for tina that he had so wanted
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