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Murder at the Motel Season 2 Episode 6
Murder at the Motel
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Murder at the Motel
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00:00A woman was found in room 205.
00:12She'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.
01:02So,
01:04Venice, Florida, April 20th, 2021.
01:30Police respond to a call about a gravely wounded woman found in the roadway in from an employee
01:37at the hotel and the woman's husband.
01:42An employee from the hotel, Ryan, reported that a woman was found in room 205.
01:50When he was talking to the dispatch, he said that it looks like she fell.
01:58She's got blood all around her.
02:00There's blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
02:02She's got very shallow breathing.
02:04He put his hand on her chest and could feel a heartbeat.
02:07When he found her, he also noticed that there was a towel on her mouth.
02:13He pulled the towel out, just tried to resuscitate her at that point.
02:23We actually had one of our guys parked in the parking lot of the roadway when the call came
02:28out.
02:30My initial thought was likely a drug overdose.
02:35At this period of time, we're having a real problem with fentanyl overdoses, even to the
02:39point where, you know, we're carrying Narcan in our vest.
02:45When I first got there, the paramedics and firefighters, they were arriving on scene.
02:51I went up the stairway with them and one of our deputies was already there providing first
02:56aid.
02:57And, you know, as soon as the paramedics got there, they took over first aid.
03:02And I kind of just stood outside the room in the doorway just to maintain the scene.
03:10The victim's husband, Gerald Strader, identifies her to the police as Tina Strader and informs
03:15them that she works as a cleaner in the roadway in.
03:21When they found her, she was half in the closet with her feet sticking out so they could see
03:25her feet from the doorway.
03:27So when they pulled her, there was a trail of blood from the closet to where she was
03:32ultimately found by first responders.
03:37She had some trauma to her face and to her neck.
03:40What stood out the most is that she had a shoe print on the side of her face.
03:45As far as we knew, she hadn't been down too long because Ryan didn't see her chest rise.
03:50He had been performing CPR.
03:52So any signs of life, our first priority is preservation of life.
03:56So they're going to transport her to the hospital to see if they can save her.
04:02As Tina's rushed to the hospital, detectives pulled Gerald aside and asked him some questions.
04:09We needed to speak with him.
04:10We needed to get more information about some of the things that he saw because he was living
04:14there.
04:15He was on scene when this happened.
04:17He was one of our best witnesses to put a timeframe together.
04:22It was 205 on her, on her...
04:27Yeah, a vacant list.
04:28It was on her vacant list.
04:29Yes.
04:30I told you she was there at 849.
04:32At 849.
04:33And I texted her right back.
04:35She texted both those messages at 849.
04:37I texted her back at 851 and she didn't text me back.
04:41So what time did you end up going and looking?
04:43Honestly, it must have been right after 952.
04:46I went to third floor and I saw Liz with the third floor girl.
04:51I said, have you seen Tina at all?
04:53She said, she's on second floor.
04:55I said, well, she's supposed to be down there, but I don't see her anywhere.
04:58I went back up and went 205 and opened the door and I could see her foot.
05:05He's got some physical disabilities, so he wasn't able to actually go into the room due to his
05:13wheelchair, but he called for Ryan.
05:17Her head was right by the water heater and she was kind of laying half in that room and
05:24half right there in front of the sink.
05:27And she was in a pool of blood under her head and it was smeared over here on the floor too.
05:35And she had a rag in her mouth, like stuffed way down in her mouth.
05:40That was wadded like this and stuck down in her throat.
05:46Something just didn't seem right with the whole circumstance.
05:50She was there alone.
05:51She was an employee.
05:53We knew she was in there cleaning the room.
05:55There was some blood on the floor.
05:57One of our guys on our unit immediately went down to the front office to start checking video
06:05to see if there's anything unusual.
06:07From prior incidents at the hotel, we knew there was pretty good surveillance there,
06:11a lot of cameras.
06:14He calls me up shortly after, like within minutes, he told me something's not right here.
06:24What you see in the video is Tina approaches room 205 with her cart.
06:35You see her husband kind of in the background and they look like they're having some type
06:38of an exchange, just a verbal exchange.
06:42And she goes into the room and her husband leaves the opposite direction.
06:48Only a minute later, we see someone.
06:51He walks towards the room.
06:53You can see him look inside.
06:55He then walks back towards his room, which was 209, just around the corner.
07:03Then he comes back and you see him walk into the room.
07:13He's in there for 14 minutes.
07:17He leaves the room and leaves the hotel.
07:36What was really scary with that tape is you see just this sinister look on his face.
07:46Before and after he enters the room, he's smiling and he looks like he's proud of himself.
07:56It was gut-wrenching to watch that.
08:03Investigators speak to the staff at the Roadway Inn to learn more about the man staying in
08:09room 209.
08:12I interviewed the motel staff.
08:15I was tasked with speaking to them about any interactions they had had with him during
08:19that time.
08:20He was not favorably looked upon as a guest.
08:22He created a lot of issues with some of the other tenants.
08:26The staff themselves were not comfortable being around him.
08:31My wife cleaned I think it was 209 yesterday and said something to the management that something
08:41wasn't right about that guy.
08:42She's like, keep an eye on this guy because there's just something not right about him.
08:46I don't know what it is.
08:48He had a lot of tattoos, which has nothing to do with it.
08:51Tattoos aren't the point.
08:52It doesn't really matter.
08:54It was more his eyes.
08:56He gave me a look.
08:57I don't know.
08:58It was weird.
08:59He had dark eyes.
09:00His eyes were black.
09:03So I called my husband before I went back to the room to give him his towels and I had
09:06my husband come up.
09:09And then I handed the guy the towels.
09:10He said, thank you.
09:11He went on about his business.
09:12And he just sat there with the door open, smoking, listening to a lot of music, loud music.
09:18Everybody that came in contact with him, he would not let them in.
09:24He was not a nice guy.
09:26He would snap at these people and he would be that person where you look at him and he
09:31would just start saying things to you in a demeaning manner and you weren't sure what
09:35was going to happen.
09:37He really didn't know what was behind the eyes.
09:46Investigators conduct the search of both rooms for evidence to see if they can establish
09:50a link between Tina Strader and the man staying in room 209.
09:58Room 205 was where Tina was located.
10:00So in there we had, again, her clothing.
10:03We had the towel that was stuffed in her mouth, a lanyard that she had been wearing, her hearing
10:07aid, some blood swabs.
10:12At that point, we kind of focused our attention to his room, being that, you know, he's likely
10:17a suspect in whatever happened to Tina in room 205.
10:22So we were outside the room.
10:23We started making announcements for him to come out and there was no response.
10:28So we thought we were probably going to have to make entry.
10:32Within 209, we located some more narcotics, another towel that was bloodied, and we also
10:38took the pee trap in his sink because we were hoping to find some more evidence that maybe
10:44he had tried to wash himself prior to leaving the hotel.
10:49Police fanned across the hotel property in a desperate search for the suspect from room
10:54209, but he was nowhere to be found.
10:57They knew it was a race against time to apprehend a violent killer who might strike again.
11:10April 20th, 2021.
11:13Police are searching for their prime suspect in the attack on Tina Strader when they catch
11:18a break.
11:20Through interviewing the motel staff, they learn the name of their suspect, Steven Havrilka.
11:30Steven Havrilka has an extensive criminal history.
11:35I worked that area he grew up in.
11:37I started my career down there.
11:39He was one of those kids that started with the vehicle burglaries, and we kind of just
11:44dealt with him on that aspect.
11:45And then it became every briefing, he would do something or he'd be a person of interest
11:49in doing something.
11:52He did go to jail for a little bit of time to take us away from there.
11:57If you had a crime committed in that area, he was always a person of interest at the time
12:01if he was out of jail.
12:04As the crime scene is being processed, detectives receive a surprising call about a potential
12:10sighting of their suspect.
12:13There is a gentleman who was acting very erratic down by the regents bank.
12:19He has his arms outstretched.
12:20He is proclaiming that he is Jesus.
12:22And this is when the 911 calls start coming in.
12:26We started hearing calls for backup from the deputy that responded to the bank down the
12:33road for the suspicious person.
12:35To be honest, I didn't really pay any attention when the initial call came out because our
12:43circumstance at the hotel.
12:45But then when we start hearing our deputy down the road calling for backup, another deputy
12:50at the hotel told me, hey, I think he's out with, you know, Steven Havrilka, who's our suspect
12:56here.
12:57At that point, I ran down to my car and I got to him as fast as I could.
13:04We were really fortunate with this case and that we did have all of the community support
13:08that we did because they saw this guy and they said, you know what, he doesn't look right.
13:12There's something off about him.
13:15People thought he was crazy.
13:17They didn't know if he was on something.
13:20But he was getting down on his knees, acting like he was on a cross.
13:23Normal behavior for somebody at roughly 11 o'clock in the morning in front of a bank.
13:31When the callers called, there was one female that said that he was stripping down and maybe
13:35possibly fondling himself.
13:38There was another caller that stated that he was on his hands and knees praying.
13:47When I got there, there was two deputies.
13:49They were just placing handcuffs on Havrilka.
13:52He was on his belly, face down.
13:55He was trying to buck them off.
13:57At that point, I came up and I helped him out.
14:00I tried to hold him down and it felt like superhuman strength.
14:06I remember I was trying to hold his legs and hamstrings down and he was bucking me up.
14:12I heard he was saying things like she and her and knowing that he had some involvement,
14:18quickly what happened to Tina, I took out my cell phone and I started recording just in
14:23case he made any spontaneous statements about what he did there.
14:26I was trying to hold him down.
14:27I was trying to hold him down.
14:28Stop.
14:29Stop.
14:30Stop.
14:31Relax.
14:32Relax.
14:33Relax.
14:34Relax.
14:35Relax.
14:36Reno, calm down.
14:37He was trying to eat grass.
14:38He was just delusional.
14:51Calm down, relax, calm down.
14:55We're going to get an ambulance to check you out, OK, man?
15:00He was trying to eat grass.
15:02He was just delusional.
15:04He looked like he was definitely
15:05under the influence of drugs.
15:09Stop eating grass, man.
15:11Stop eating the grass.
15:13Mommy, I wasn't really ill.
15:16I was dead with you.
15:18Mommy, I'm sorry.
15:21Mommy, I hate to kill her.
15:23She told me, she told me I hate to kill her.
15:26I hate to kill her.
15:28Ah!
15:29Ah!
15:30Ah!
15:39Some of the deputies that were there
15:41knew him from past encounters.
15:43So luckily, they were able to kind of talk him down a little bit
15:47so he didn't end up fighting them.
15:49And they were able to take him into custody.
15:51And ultimately, he was transported to the hospital
15:53because he was so influenced by narcotics.
15:58He was soaking wet.
15:59He had no shirt on.
16:00He had jeans that were, they felt like he just
16:04got out of a swimming pool.
16:05He obviously had something going on, a mental situation
16:08or a drug situation.
16:11In the hospital, they were checking his blood toxicity,
16:14making sure that he doesn't have any kind of injuries.
16:18So he's just there basically for medical clearance at this point.
16:23At that point, he was pretty sedated.
16:26We collected his jeans and, you know, put them in a paper bag
16:31for evidence purposes, which it was later handed off
16:34to our crime scene people.
16:38Tina, she was there at the same hospital as a few rooms down,
16:42actually.
16:44Steven Havrilka is too under the influence of drugs for police
16:48to question him about the attack on Tina Strader,
16:52who remains in critical condition.
16:55Investigators can only wait and hope that she will wake up
16:58and give a statement about what happened in room 205.
17:08Venice, Florida, April 2021.
17:11Tina Strader is in critical condition
17:14after a brutal attack in the roadway end.
17:19A few hours after being rushed to the hospital,
17:22Tina passes away from her injuries.
17:26There's no easy way for us to tell someone
17:28that their loved one has died,
17:29and especially in a manner such as this.
17:34We all dread it.
17:35It's the worst part of the job.
17:39I feel so awful for her and her family
17:43and what they've gone through.
17:44I can't even imagine the depth of pain
17:48that it must be for them.
17:52Gerald was what you would expect
17:54of a very grieving husband.
17:56He was very emotional.
17:58He really described Tina as everything to him,
18:00with the reason for him to continue living,
18:02the reason for waking up every single day.
18:05And when we were speaking with him,
18:07you could just see the pain and the hurt
18:10that he was carrying both on the outside and the inside.
18:13I think about her every day and what she deserves.
18:21She was the biggest giver, the biggest heart,
18:24the biggest genuine soul of anybody I've ever known
18:27in my entire life.
18:34From what I learned from Gerald,
18:36Tina just appeared to be a very infectious person,
18:39somebody that was willing to help others,
18:42somebody that was willing to talk to anybody
18:44that may be down on their luck,
18:46and somebody that was always willing
18:47to lend a helping hand.
18:52We learned that Gerald had met Tina at a poultry plant
18:55when they were both living in Texas.
18:58And Tina had this bubbly personality,
19:00and something just really stuck out
19:01and caught Gerald's attention.
19:05Gerald and Tina were really living out
19:07their honeymoon phase here in Florida.
19:09They were making friends.
19:10They loved going to the beach.
19:12Gerald did have some health problems,
19:14but Tina was working to take care of him.
19:16He used a wheelchair to get around,
19:18and he was also employed at the motel as well,
19:21sort of as a maintenance man.
19:22So the two of them were really trying
19:24to build a life together here in Florida.
19:31Initially at the hospital,
19:42some things were not observed
19:44that were observed in the autopsy.
19:46For instance, the severe amount of bruising to her head
19:49and a shoe imprint that we found on her face.
19:54With everything that's going on in the hospital,
19:56with all the tubes and everything,
19:57that was not necessarily visible at that time.
20:02We want to know exactly how she died.
20:05Even though we have a lot of evidence pointing us to a certain cause of death, we need a definitive answer.
20:11We need somebody in a medical background telling us this is what she actually died of.
20:17On the 21st of April, 2021, Sarasota Sheriff's Department hold a press conference to inform the community of the heinous crime that has taken place.
20:34We knew that this was a big deal because the sheriff himself, Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, had called a press conference.
20:43You could tell the sense of urgency when we were out there.
20:47We knew that something very bad had happened inside that room.
20:52By all accounts, what I'm about to share with you is one of the most egregious crimes we've seen recently here in Sarasota County.
21:00So we are following up leads today, interviewing people, looking at video, things of that nature.
21:05So it is still a very active investigation.
21:10We found out it was strangulation.
21:12Not by a cord or a rope, but by crushing force, which could only be done by somebody's hands.
21:25Not to our surprise, Havruka was uncooperative when interviewed.
21:30However, through the investigation, detectives have learned that Havruka did not know the victim.
21:35I can only imagine that he may have spent 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.
21:50He is a convicted felon with 34 prior felony charges and 19 felony convictions.
21:57Havruka's prior crimes range from battery, domestic battery by strangulation, burglary with a battery, battery of a detained person, battery of a person 65 years or older, and tampering with a witness, to name a few.
22:13There is no other way to describe Mr. Havruka.
22:16He is an animal.
22:18He also has tattoos that depict his certain symbols of white supremacy.
22:23The victim in this case was doing her job, was certainly terrorized, battered, and now is deceased.
22:36As this investigation continues, we are committed to working with the state attorney's office to see that this man is put away for the rest of his life.
22:44While Stephen Havruka is in the hospital, he talks to the police about what happened that morning and admits to some howering details of the crime.
22:55I 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 as an inmate, and at the hospital, we admitted to the offense on several occasions to several of the corrections deputies.
23:24I went ahead, and I got high, and I was up for about a week, and when I was up for about a week, I fell into a hairbrush, and then we just walked out the door, and then I took a left, and when I took to the left, I sensed that there was a woman right there in that room, because there was a cleaning maze there, but there could have been a guy.
23:44When I went in there, I took a left, and then when I took a left, I went there, and she was in the room, and I said, hey, and when she came in the room, I hit her, and when I hit her, she fell on the floor, and when she fell on the floor, I turned on her, and started choking her, and I stomped on her.
24:09Stephen Havruka is released from the hospital and taken straight into custody.
24:15He refuses to tell investigators anything else about that morning, or why he chose to attack Tina Strader, so the investigators have to piece together the events themselves.
24:26We knew that she had been kicked in the face, because we could see the shoe print, and we couldn't find his shoes, and we wanted to know if he had done any additional evidence, so we did a canine track.
24:38We actually did several of them in order to try to recover any of this potential evidence.
24:42And that canine track led us to the wooded area, where we located some of his clothing and some narcotics.
24:50By his own admission, he said that he had ingested methamphetamine in those woods immediately after the murder.
24:57Once he's now high on meth, he exits the wooded area and starts walking southbound on Tamiami Trail, which is a very heavily traveled roadway.
25:07It was either the day after or two days after we assisted in canvassing the neighborhood back behind where 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 video surveillance of him walking down the street.
25:32Investigators then catch a break when Habroka's DNA is discovered on Tina's lanyard.
25:38The only piece of evidence that we had both Tina and Habroka's DNA on was her lanyard, which was great 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.
26:01At that point, we were very confident in the case that we had and were limited with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on how many pieces of evidence we can send.
26:09So we sent what we felt were the most important pieces for them to test.
26:13Detectives also interviewed Habroka's family members to gain more insight into his character.
26:22They stated he was a good kid.
26:24When 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, outpatient treatment programs.
26:50None of them succeeded or he didn't qualify for.
26:55His mom did tell us that around, but she said between 9 and 9.30, the day of the murder, that Stephen texted her.
27:02And it was just a very bizarre text that he was moonwalking and talk of rainbows.
27:08And she said it made absolutely no sense.
27:10And we found out that that was almost immediately after the murder.
27:18While the Sarasota Sheriff's Office builds their case against Habroka, they continue to try to talk to him.
27:24Detectives have a confession from Stephen Habroka, but still do not know his motive.
27:31He flat out refused to talk to us.
27:34Approximately two or three weeks later, happened to check my email, and I was told that he wanted to talk to the detectives about this case.
27:41So, around lunchtime, myself and Detective Patella went to the jail.
27:48We went to the proper room.
27:49At that time, Mr. Habroka was brought in by the deputies.
27:54He was a very subdued state compared to what we had normally seen him in previously.
27:59And then he decided he was going to tell us what happened.
28:02April 2021, Venice, Florida.
28:15Detectives are interviewing Stephen Habroka for the murder of Tina Strader at the Roadway Inn Motel.
28:23We were told that you wanted to speak with us.
28:27I just want to tell you all what happened.
28:28Okay.
28:29That's it.
28:29I remember I was working out that night, and I went to go try and have a drink and clear my head a few places down at this Wally's place, but it was closed.
28:41So, I went back and said, all right, that's fine.
28:44Went and got like a four-pack of beer or something and just sat in there and was just kind of getting in my head, which I had been doing for a long time, and it's a dangerous place.
28:57Well, I went across the street to checkers, and when I went across the street to checkers, I, you know, it's just the way the world is these days, man.
29:08And there was somebody there who was talking about drugs.
29:11And then I started using it, and it's just, I ended up staying in my hotel room for a week.
29:18I didn't really leave.
29:19I'd come out.
29:20I was paranoid, and some of it had to do with some drug use, but a lot of it was already there.
29:27Everything inside my head got more vivid and louder because I wasn't, I was, that's the only place I was at.
29:33I had this voice in my head that was telling me that I don't belong here, that I belong, I'm meant to go home, and I'm from hell or something.
29:44They just kept repeating over and over and over and over and over again to where I would actually believe them.
29:49The last thing that I thought that I, that this was heaven, and that I was, I was from hell, and I don't belong here, and I needed to go home to my family.
30:00And the only way I could go home to my family is if I did what I did, and I just went outside, and I just picked the first person that I seen.
30:13I didn't, I didn't really think about it.
30:17I went out and I looked in, I went back in my room a few times, trying to push it off, telling myself that this is, this is not, you don't have to do it.
30:27And then just, voices came in my head and said, this is the only way you're going to be able to go home.
30:33And I just went and picked somebody, and I ran in, I don't remember what number of room it was, I ran in and went up to the right, went in a room, and I did what I did.
30:47And I don't, I don't really have the heart to go into detail to it right now.
30:51I asked him why he had his shoes off, because that was concern when we saw his shoes off, that maybe he had committed a rape against her in there.
31:04And he said, no, he did not rape her, he did not have any intention of raping her.
31:07And he said that he took his shoes off because he didn't want to leave shoe marks on the floor as he was cleaning it in the room where he killed her.
31:13We know you were in there for about 14 minutes.
31:20What was the 14 minutes?
31:22I mean, that's a long time.
31:24Because she wasn't gone yet.
31:28I made the mistake when I went in, I hit her, and then I just grabbed her neck and I just, I was joking her.
31:37And then I started worrying about cleaning whatever up.
31:41And I kept having to go back and keep cleaning stuff up, because I was sweating really bad, and I kept, it was dripping on the floor, so I kept trying to wipe it up.
31:51I had to do that like three times.
31:52He was ultimately charged with second-degree murder.
32:00Had we found out that he had raped her, we would have perhaps gone in a different direction.
32:05But yes, there was definitely discussion about that and about doing death penalty.
32:10But we decided that second-degree would be the best course.
32:15There's some statutory requirements that we thought we would have the best chance of conviction as second-degree.
32:22But before the trial could take place, Havroka begins to engage in self-destructive activity within custody.
32:38Several times he actually tried committing suicide in the jail.
32:43Tried drowning himself in the toilet, he tried starving himself, he tried hanging himself at one point, all of which were unsuccessful.
32:51The deputies were able to intervene.
32:53He was put in segregation because he couldn't be around anybody, he would start fights.
32:58He was just uncontrollable.
33:02From all accounts, from his psychological reports, he just would 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.
33:19So, the medical staff had him evaluated, and during that evaluation, they found him incompetent.
33:28He was also involved in an investigation.
33:29He would have been arrested.
33:30And he was arrested.
33:31And he was arrested.
33:32And he was arrested.
33:33and the trial is postponed indefinitely.
33:36The doctors are worried that there might never be justice
33:40for Tina and her family.
33:49I really felt that that was not right
33:52because he told us in the interview
33:54that he knew what he was doing.
33:57Although he had a different way of thinking,
34:00he knew exactly what he was doing
34:02and the consequences for that.
34:07I absolutely think it was a game
34:09because he was clearly able to articulate what he did
34:12and he articulated that multiple times
34:14to multiple different people.
34:15He knew what he did was wrong.
34:17He recognized that.
34:19He was not a stupid person by any stretch of the imagination.
34:23He had been so familiar with the court system
34:27throughout his life.
34:28He understood what that system looked like
34:30and what trial looked like
34:31and how to communicate with his attorneys.
34:34I know that is a common play that is used,
34:37especially with him being a known drug user.
34:40So I wasn't completely shocked to see that.
34:43I was more shocked to see that they kept going back and forth,
34:46thieving him competent and then incompetent.
34:48So really for two years it was a wait and see period.
34:54And there's a lot of frustrations from not only Tina's husband
34:58but also from law enforcement because this is a man that they want to convict
35:02and they want to get behind bars and make sure that he is never on the streets again.
35:06And for Gerald it was a very emotional process.
35:12There was no closure for him.
35:14He wanted justice for Tina.
35:15He wanted this man to be put away behind bars.
35:18It was not unexpected that he would be ruled incompetent, but it wasn't what I'd hoped for.
35:27There's no justice for Tina and there's no peace for me.
35:31I believe in the court system and I have to because that's one of the choice that I have.
35:44It is only in November 2023, two and a half years after the brutal murder of Tina Strader,
35:50that Stephen Havroga is finally found competent to stand trial.
35:56They went back and forth for years on whether or not he was going to be competent.
36:00He was going to be competent to stand trial.
36:02So when he finally was found competent, I think the third time back in 2023, it was great.
36:09In preparation for the trial, investigators also delve into Havroga's troubled past.
36:16He tells me all about his issues after prison.
36:20He said he got out of prison and he said that he couldn't really find his way.
36:25He stated that he was looking forward to getting into weightlifting and exercising and wanted to be a trainer and become a better person.
36:38But he just could not follow through with it because of his mental health issues.
36:44He knew he had mental health issues.
36:47He said that he heard voices in his head all the time.
36:52He said that these voices told him to do bad things.
36:55And when he would work out, those voices would go away.
36:59Having known him basically since my career started to seeing where he was now, I can't say I was completely shocked by it.
37:10But yeah, it was pretty up there in far as the realm of craziness.
37:15He is covered the top of his head, his face, neck, chest, back, everything in tattoos.
37:26Mainly, he got in prison.
37:28A 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.
37:45That's his explanation of it.
37:51When he was ruled competent to stand trial, this was really a big moment for Gerald.
37:56It was a mix of emotions.
37:59On one hand, there is some relief that this trial is finally going to continue and going to move forward.
38:06But on the other hand, he continued to carry the grief and the sorrow of losing Tina.
38:11And that was something that weighed very heavily on his heart.
38:14You could tell it just in his voice and talking with him.
38:17Gerald didn't continue to live in the motel the last time that I spoke with him and met with him.
38:23It 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.
38:33He wore a necklace of her thumbprint.
38:36And that was something that he said was a part of Tina that would always remain with him forever.
38:43On the 3rd of February, 2025, Stephen Havroka changes his plea to guilty of second-degree murder.
38:58We found out just days before his actual sentencing.
39:02So I was surprised that we were finally going to be coming to our resolution, and I was very happy at the same time.
39:09I was in the room, and he didn't recognize me.
39:14But it was very satisfying to finally get him to tell a judge, this is what I did, just like he told us.
39:25He told the judge that he was responsible for her death.
39:34He didn't really express any type of remorse.
39:38I know that the state attorney read a victim impact statement from Tina's daughter.
39:44And yeah, he didn't offer any type of apologies, just admitted that he did it.
39:50And that was kind of the end of his story.
39:53He was sentenced to two life sentences, and that included some of the offenses that he had committed while he was in jail.
39:59I'd say the stars kind of aligned on this case.
40:07If we didn't get him right then, like I said, that's a very robust residential community.
40:14Who knows if he did a home invasion, what else he had on his mind.
40:18You had a very evil man commit an extremely evil act for no reason.
40:28And you had a victim that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
40:34And there was no other reason for it other than that.
40:39We now have an animal that's off of the streets.
40:42He's not going to be able to hurt anybody anymore.
40:44But 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 for the sentencing.
41:01He had ultimately passed away.
41:03And he wasn't here to receive the justice and to learn the justice for Tina that he had so wanted.
41:14To take care.
41:19To be continued...
41:33To be continued...
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