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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,
01:27In Miss Florida, April 20th, 2021,
01:32police respond to a call about a gravely wounded woman
01:35found in the roadway in from an employee at the hotel
01:39and the woman's husband.
01:42An employee from the hotel, Ryan,
01:44reported that a woman was found in room 205.
01:50When he was talking to the dispatch,
01:54he said that it looks like she fell.
01:57She's got blood all around her.
01:59There'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
02:09that there was a towel on her mouth.
02:13He pulled the towel out,
02:15just tried to resuscitate her at that point.
02:22We actually had one of our guys
02:24parked in the parking lot of the roadway
02:27when the call came out.
02:30My initial thought was likely a drug overdose.
02:35At this period of time,
02:36we're having a real problem with fentanyl overdoses,
02:39even to the point where, you know,
02:40we're carrying Narcan in our vest.
02:45When I first got there,
02:47the paramedics and firefighters,
02:48they were arriving on scene.
02:51I went up the stairway with them
02:53and one of our deputies was already there
02:55providing first aid.
02:57And, you know,
02:58as soon as the paramedics got there,
02:59they took over first aid.
03:01And I kind of just stood outside the room
03:04in the doorway just to maintain the scene.
03:07The victim's husband, Gerald Strader,
03:12identifies her to the police as Tina Strader
03:15and informs them that she works
03:17as a cleaner in the roadway in.
03:21When they found her,
03:22she was half in the closet
03:23with her feet sticking out,
03:24so they could see her feet from the doorway.
03:27So when they pulled her,
03:28there was a trail of blood from the closet
03:31to where she was ultimately found by first responders.
03:36She had some trauma to her face and to her neck.
03:40What stood out the most is that she had a shoe print
03:43on the side of her face.
03:45As far as we knew,
03:46she hadn't been down too long
03:48because Ryan didn't see her chest rise.
03:50He had been performing CPR.
03:52So any signs of life,
03:54our first priority is preservation of life.
03:56So they're going to transport her to the hospital
03:58to see if they can save her.
04:01As Tina's rushed to the hospital,
04:03detectives pulled Gerald aside
04:05and asked him some questions.
04:08We needed to speak with him.
04:10We needed to get more information
04:11about some of the things that he saw
04:13because he was living there.
04:14He was on scene when this happened.
04:17He was one of our best witnesses
04:19to put a timeframe together.
04:25It was 205 on her, on her?
04:27Yeah, a vacant list.
04:28It was on her vacant list.
04:29So she told you she was there at 849?
04:32At 849.
04:34And I texted her right back.
04:35She texted both those messages at 849.
04:38I texted her back at 851,
04:40and she didn't take me back.
04:41So what time did you end up going and looking?
04:44Honestly, it must have been right after 952.
04:47I went to the third floor,
04:49and I saw Liz with the third floor girl.
04:52I said, have you seen Tina at all?
04:53She said, she's on the second floor.
04:55I said, well, she's supposed to be down there,
04:57but I don't see her anywhere.
04:58I went back up, and I went 205, and I opened the door,
05:03and I could see her foot.
05:07He's got some physical disabilities,
05:09so he wasn't able to actually go into the room
05:12due to his wheelchair.
05:14But he called for Ryan.
05:17Her head was right by the water heater,
05:20and she was kind of laying half in that room
05:24and half right there in front of the sink.
05:27And she was in a pool of blood under her head,
05:31and it was smeared over here on the floor, too.
05:35And she had a rag in her mouth,
05:37like stuffed way down in her mouth.
05:40That was wadded like this and stuck down in her throat.
05:45Something 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
06:00went down to the front office to start checking video
06:05to see if there's anything unusual.
06:07From prior incidents at the hotel,
06:09we knew there was pretty good surveillance there,
06:11a lot of cameras.
06:14He calls me up shortly after, like within minutes.
06:18He told me something's not right here.
06:26What you see in the video is Tina approaches room 205
06:30with her cart.
06:35You see her husband kind of in the background,
06:36and they look like they're having some type of an exchange,
06:39just a verbal exchange.
06:42And she goes into the room, and her husband
06:44leaves 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,
06:58just around the corner.
06:59And then 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.
07:19He takes a moment to see him walk into the room.
07:35What was really scary with that tape is you see just
07:40this sinister look on his face.
07:42on his face. Both before and after he enters the room, he's smiling and he looks like he's
07:51proud of himself. It was gut-wrenching to watch that.
08:04Investigators speak to the staff at the Roadway Inn 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 cleaned, I think it was 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
08:45just something not right about him. I don't know what it is.
08:49He had a lot of tattoos, which has nothing to do with it. Tattoos aren't the point.
08:53It doesn't matter. It was more his eyes. He gave me a look. I don't know. It was weird.
08:59He had dark eyes. His eyes were black. So I called my husband before I went back to the room
09:05to 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,
09:21he would not let them in.
09:22He was not a nice guy. He would snap at these people, and he would be that person where you
09:30look at him, and he would just start saying things to you in a demeaning manner, and you
09:34weren't sure what was going to happen. You 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 a link
09:51between Tina Strader and the man's thing in room 209.
09:57Room 205 was where Tina was located. So in there, we had, again, her clothing. We had the towel that
10:04was stuffed 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
10:18suspect and whatever happened to Tina in room 205. So we were outside the room. We started making
10:24announcements for him to come out, and there was no response. So we thought we were probably going
10:29to have to make entry. Within 209, we located some more narcotics, another towel that was bloodied,
10:37and we also took 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. Police fanned across the hotel property in a
10:51desperate search for the suspect from room 209, but he was nowhere to be found. They knew it was a race
10:58against time 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 Strader
11:17when they catch a break. Through interviewing the motel staff, they learn the name of their suspect,
11:23Stephen Havrolka. Stephen Havrolka has an extensive criminal history.
11:35I worked that area he grew up in. I started my career down there. He was one of those kids that
11:41started with the vehicle burglaries, and we kind of just dealt with him on that aspect. And then it
11:45became every briefing, he would do something or he'd be a person of interest in doing something.
11:50He did go to jail for a little bit of time to take us away from there. If you had a crime committed
11:58in 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
12:11of their suspect. There is a gentleman who was acting very erratic down by the region's bank.
12:17He has his arms outstretched. He's proclaiming that he's Jesus. And this is when the 911 calls start
12:24coming in.
12:27We start hearing calls for backup from the deputy that responded to the bank down the road for the
12:34suspicious 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. But then when we start hearing our deputy down the road calling for backup,
12:49another deputy at the hotel told me, hey, I think he's out with, you know, Steven Havrilka,
12:55who's our suspect here. At that point, I ran down to my car and I got to him as fast as I could.
13:01We were really fortunate with this case and that we did have all of the community support that we
13:08did because they saw this guy and they said, you know what, he doesn't look right. There's something
13:12off about him.
13:15People 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 the
13:27morning 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.
13:47When I got there, there was two deputies. They were just placing handcuffs on Havrilka. He was
13:53on his belly, face down. He was like trying to buck them off. At that point, I came up and
13:59I helped him out. I tried to hold him down and he just, it felt like superhuman strength.
14:04I 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 Tina. I took out my, my cell phone. I started recording just in case he made
14:23any like spontaneous statements about what he did there.
14:28Stop, stop, stop. Relax, relax, relax.
14:30Okay, I can't do that for me.
14:33I can't do that for me.
14:35Sorry, I can't do it.
14:37She told me. I don't care.
14:39Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
14:41Shut up, shut up.
14:42Shut up, shut up.
14:44Steven, man, I need you to sit down for me.
14:46Calm down for me.
14:47You said, get some address?
14:48Calm down, calm down, calm down.
14:51We're going to get an ambulance to check you out, okay, man?
14:59He was trying to eat grass.
15:02He was just delusional.
15:04He looked like he was definitely under the influence of drugs.
15:09Stop eating grass, man.
15:11Stop eating the grass.
15:12Mommy, I wasn't really you.
15:15I was done with you.
15:17Mommy, that hurt me.
15:21Mommy, I hit the grass.
15:23She told me.
15:25She told me I hit the grass.
15:39Some of the deputies that were there knew him from past encounters.
15:43So luckily, they were able to kind of talk him down a little bit so he didn't end up fighting
15:48them and they were able to take him into custody.
15:51And ultimately, he was transported to the hospital because 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 got out of a swimming pool.
16:05He obviously had something going on, a mental situation or a drug situation.
16:11In the hospital, they're checking his blood toxicity, making sure that he doesn't have any kind of
16:16injuries.
16:16So 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 for evidence purposes, which it was later
16:33handed off to our crime scene people.
16:35Tina, she was there at the same hospital as a few rooms down, actually.
16:44Steven Havrilka is too under the influence of drugs for police to question him about the
16:50attack on Tina Strader, who remains in critical condition.
16:55Investigators can only wait and hope that she will wake up and give a statement
16:59about what happened in room 205.
17:05In the hospital, Tina Strader is in critical condition after a brutal attack in the Roadway Inn.
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,
17:29and especially in a manner such as this.
17:31We all dreaded it. It's the worst part of the job.
17:39I feel so awful for her and her family and what they've gone through.
17:44I can't even imagine 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.
17:58He really described Tina as everything to him, with the reason for him to continue living,
18:02the reason for waking up every single day. And when we were speaking with him,
18:07you could just see the pain and the hurt that he was carrying both on the outside and the inside.
18:17I think about her every day and what she deserves.
18:20He was the biggest giver, the biggest heart, the biggest genuine soul of anybody I've ever known in my entire life.
18:35From what I learned from Gerald, Tina just appeared to be a very infectious person,
18:39somebody that was willing to help others, somebody that was willing to talk to anybody that may be down on their luck,
18:46and somebody that was always willing to lend a helping hand.
18:52We learned that Gerald had met Tina at a poultry plant when they were both living in Texas.
18:58And Tina had this bubbly personality and something just 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 friends.
19:10They loved going to the beach. Gerald did have some health problems,
19:14but Tina was working to take care of him. He used a wheelchair to get around,
19:18and he was also employed at the motel as well, sort of as a maintenance man.
19:22So the two of them were really trying to build a life together here in Florida.
19:26The two of them were really trying to build a life together in Florida.
19:40Initially, at the hospital, some things were not observed that were observed in the autopsy.
19:46For instance, the severe amount of bruising to her head and a shoe imprint that we found on her face.
19:51With everything that's going on in the hospital, with all the tubes and everything,
19:57that was not necessarily visible at that time.
20:00We 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.
20:34We knew that this was a big deal because the sheriff himself,
20:37Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, had called a press conference.
20:40You could tell the sense of urgency when we were out there. We knew that something very
20:48bad 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
20:57recently here in Sarasota County. So we are following up leads today, interviewing people,
21:02looking at video, things of that nature. So it is still a very active investigation.
21:10We found out it was strangulation, not by a cord or a rope, but by crushing force,
21:19which could only be done by somebody's hands.
21:26Not to our surprise, Havruka was uncooperative when interviewed. However,
21:30through 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
21:43she was employed and he was staying. As 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,
22:05battery of a detained person, battery of a person 65 years or older, and tampering with a witness,
22:11to name a few. There is no other way to describe Mr. Havruka. He is an animal.
22:19He also has tattoos that depict his certain symbols of white supremacy.
22:28The 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
22:39attorney'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
22:52and admits to some howling 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
23:17that he went as an inmate. And at the hospital, we admitted to the offense on several occasions
23:22to several of the corrections deputies.
23:24I 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 cleaning days there, but there could have been a guy.
23:46And I went in there, I took a left, and then when I took a left, I went there, 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 turned on her and started choking her and I stomped on her.
24:02Steven Havrotha 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
24:21Strader. So the investigators have to piece together the events themselves.
24:25We knew that she had been kicked in the face because we could see the shoe print.
24:31And we couldn't find his shoes. And we wanted to know if he had dumped any additional evidence.
24:36So we did a canine track. We actually did several of them in order to try to recover any of this
24:41potential evidence. And that canine track led us to the wooded area where we located some of his clothing
24:48and some narcotics. By his own admission, he said that he had ingested methamphetamine
24:54in those in those woods immediately after the murder. Once he's now high on meth, he exits the
25:01wooded 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. At one home right behind where
25:23the roadway is located on Gentian, I found someone that did have video surveillance of him walking down
25:29the street. Investigators 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 Halbroka's DNA on was her lanyard,
25:45which was great for the case because she had obviously been wearing that at the time of the crime.
25:51And 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
26:08pieces of evidence we can send. So we sent what we felt were the most important pieces for them to test.
26:15Detectives also interviewed Habroka'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.
26:42Him, his mother, his sister, they tried getting him into several different, you know, outpatient
26:48treatment programs. None of them succeeded or he didn't qualify for.
26:54His mom did tell us that around, but she said between 9 and 9 30, the day of the murder,
27:01that Stephen texted her. And it was just a very bizarre text that he was moonwalking and talk of
27:07rainbows. And she said it made absolutely no sense. And we found out that that was
27:12almost immediately after the murder.
27:14While the Sarasota Sheriff's Office builds their case against Habroka, they continue to try to talk
27:23to him. Detectives have a confession from Stephen Habroka, but still do not know his motive.
27:31He flat out refused to talk to us. Approximately two or three weeks later,
27:36happened 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. We went to the proper room.
27:49At that time, Mr. Habroka was brought in by the deputies. He was a very subdued state compared to
27:56what we had normally seen him in previously. And then he decided he was going to tell us what happened.
28:11April 2021, Venice, Florida. Detectives are interviewing Stephen Habroka for the murder of
28:18Tina Strader at the Roadway Inn Motel.
28:21We were told that you wanted to speak with us.
28:26I just want to tell you all what happened.
28:28Okay.
28:28That's it.
28:30I remember I was working out that night and I went to go try and have a drink and clear my head.
28:36A few places down at this Wally's place, but it was closed. So I went back and said,
28:41all right, that's fine. Went and got like a four pack of beer or something and just sat in there and
28:51was kind of getting in my head, which I had been doing for a long time and it's a dangerous place.
28:58Well, I went across the street to checkers. And when I went across the street to checkers,
29:03I, you know, just, uh, just the way the world is these days, man. And there was somebody there who was
29:09talking about drugs and then I started using it. It's just, I ended up staying in my hotel room for,
29:17for 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
29:28head got more vivid and louder because I wasn't, I was, that's the only place I was at. I had this,
29:35this voice in my head, this was telling me that I don't belong here, that I belong. I'm meant to go
29:41home and I'm from hell or something. They just kept repeating over and over and over and over and
29:47over again to where I would actually believe them. The last thing that I thought that I, that this was
29:53heaven and that I was, uh, I was from hell and I don't belong here and I needed to go home to my
29:59family. And the only way I could go home to my family is if I did what I did and I just went outside
30:07and, and I just picked the first person that I seen. I didn't, I didn't really think about it. I went
30:17out and I looked in, I went back in my room a few times, tried to push it off, telling myself that this is,
30:23this is not, you don't have to do it. And then just voices came in my head and said, this is the
30:30only way you're going to be able to go home. And I just went and picked somebody and I ran in,
30:39I don't remember what number of room it was. I ran in and went up to the right, went in a room and
30:45I did what I did. And I don't, I don't really have the heart to go into detail to it right now.
30:53I asked him why he had his shoes off because that was concern when we saw his shoes off of
31:01maybe he had committed a rape against her in there. And 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.
31:13We know you were in there for about 14 minutes. What was the 14 minutes? I mean, that's a long time.
31:23Because 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. And then I started worrying about cleaning whatever up.
31:42And I kept having to go back and keep cleaning stuff up because I was sweating really bad and I kept
31:46was dripping on the floor. So I kept trying to wipe it up. I had to do that like three times.
31:58He was ultimately charged with second degree murder. Had we found out that he had raped her,
32:02we would have perhaps gone in a different direction. But yes, there was definitely
32:06discussion about that and about doing death penalty. But we decided that second degree would be the best
32:12course. There's some statutory requirements that we thought we would have the best chance
32:20of conviction as second degree. But before the trial could take place,
32:26Hadroka begins to engage in self-destructive activity within custody.
32:31Several times, he actually tried committing suicide in the jail. He tried drowning himself in the toilet.
32:44He 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
32:56be around anybody. He would start fights. He was just uncontrollable.
33:04From all accounts from his psychological reports, he just would not communicate with the psychologist
33:10or the psychiatrist or whomever was evaluating him. He would sit off in a dark corner and cover
33:16himself 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 Avroka 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.
33:48I really felt that that was not right because he told us in the interview that he knew what he was doing.
33:57Although he had a different way of thinking, he knew exactly what he was doing and the consequences for that.
34:07I absolutely think it was a game because he was clearly able to articulate what he did.
34:12And he articulated that multiple times to multiple different people. He knew what he did was wrong.
34:17He recognized that. He was not a stupid person by any stretch of the imagination.
34:24He 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.
34:33I 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,
34:46feeling incompetent and then incompetent.
34:50So really for two years, it was a wait and see period. And there's a lot of frustrations from not only
34:57Tina's husband, but 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.
35:09And for Gerald, it was a very emotional process. There was no closure for him.
35:14He wanted justice for Tina. He 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.
35:28There's no justice for Tina and there's no peace for me. I believe in the court system
35:34and I have to because that's one of the choices I have.
35:37It is only in November 2023, two and a half years after the brutal murder of Tina Strader,
35:51that Stephen Havroga is finally found competent to stand trial.
35:57They went back and forth for years on whether or not he was going to be competent to stand trial. So
36:02when he finally was found competent, I think the third time back in 2023, it was great.
36:07In preparation for the trial, investigators also delve into Havroga's troubled past.
36:16He tells me all about his issues after prison. He said he got out of prison. He said that he couldn't
36:24really find his way. He stated that he was looking forward to getting into weightlifting and
36:32exercising and wanted to be a trainer and become a better person, but he just could not follow through
36:42with it because of his mental health issues. He knew he had mental health issues. He said that he heard
36:50voices in his head all the time. He said that these voices told him to do bad things. And when he would
36:58work out, those voices would go away.
37:02Having known him basically since my career started to seeing where he was now,
37:08can't say I was completely shocked by it. But yeah, it was pretty up there in far as the realm of craziness.
37:20He is covered. The top of his head, his face, neck, chest, back, everything in tattoos. Mainly,
37:26he got in prison. A lot of the tattoos are a neo-Nazi Aryan brotherhood realm of tattoos. He thinks that
37:39some of the symbols are religious and belief and not following those ideologies. That's his explanation of it.
37:47When 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
38:04continue and going to move forward. But on the other hand, he continued to carry the grief and the
38:10sorrow of Lucy and Tina. And that was something that weighed very heavily on his heart. You could
38:14tell it just in his voice and talking with him. Gerald didn't continue to live in the motel.
38:20Last times that I spoke with him and met with him, it was a small home just a few miles away from
38:27where the murder had happened. Around Gerald's neck, he often carried a memory of Tina with him. He wore a
38:34necklace of her thumbprint. And that was something that he said was a part of Tina that would always
38:41remain with him forever. On the 3rd of February, 2025, Steven Havroka changes his plea to guilty of
38:57second-degree murder. We found out just days before his actual sentencing. So I was surprised that we
39:05were finally going to be coming to our resolution. And I was very happy at the same time.
39:11I was in the room, and he didn't recognize me. But it was very satisfying to finally get him to tell
39:22a judge, this is what I did, just like he told us.
39:26He told the judge that he was responsible for her death.
39:34He didn't really express any type of remorse. I know that the state attorney read a victim
39:42impact statement from Tina's daughter. And yeah, he didn't offer any type of apologies,
39:49just 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
39:58that he had committed while he was in jail.
40:04I'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,
40:17what else he had on his mind?
40:23You had a very evil man commit an extremely evil act for no reason. And you had a victim that was
40:32just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there was no other reason for it other than that.
40:39We now have an animal that's off of the streets. He's not going to be able to hurt anybody anymore.
40:45But 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
40:58Gerald wasn't even here for the sentencing. He had ultimately passed away. And he wasn't here to
41:04receive the justice and to learn the justice for Tina that he had so wanted.
41:15So my life is all about you.
41:22And I,
41:25like my father and I am in the middle of the streets.
41:27And since you're here today,
41:29it was a great time to have a nice voice before you stop the show and you're here to feel about me to be a private person.
41:32And he's just so happy that you're here to feel the deal before you stop watching that.
41:33So despite the fact that you're there,
41:35they've also made almost the soundtrack of the series of the music that's always heard.
41:37But we're still enjoying the song that you're here to be a bit more of the pueblo that you're here to be something that you've heard.
41:39But we've also seen on the line,
41:41the song that was a big fan back.
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