The death of Kevin Salary, 27, is the second homicide in the area this week. His girlfriend turned herself in.
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer
Published November 17, 2005
Erin M. Kitchen, 23, was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder.
Kevin Salary died Tuesday after suffering "upper body trauma."
ST. PETERSBURG - Best friends since childhood, Kevin Salary and Sampson Canfall had plenty of time to talk at the car detail shop on 18th Avenue S where they worked. Football, family, cars, whatever.
"He said, "I'm tired and I have to get out of this relationship,"' Canfall recalled. "Now I wake up and hear this."
Salary's girlfriend killed him late Tuesday at their apartment at 4901 37th St. N, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says. He was one week shy of his 28th birthday.
It was the second homicide in the area this week. Early Tuesday, someone shot and killed Dalvontae Coley, 22, in his apartment on 28th Street S.
Erin M. Kitchen, 23, turned herself in Wednesday afternoon and was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. She has retained a lawyer and did not admit to the crime, said Sgt. Jim Bordner, a sheriff's spokesman.
Deputies were called to the apartment just before midnight after someone called 911 to report an injured person at Oak Villa Apartments in the Lealman area.
Investigators would not discuss the manner of death, saying only that Salary died of "upper body trauma."
Salary's family said he was stabbed and that it may have been over a call he received from another woman.
"It doesn't make sense. Everybody liked the kid," said Salary's mother, Patricia Lovett, gripping a picture of her son as family gathered at her home in St. Petersburg.
Described as a loving father to his 9-year-old son, Kevon Williams, and respectful to others, Salary coached the Silver Raiders youth football team. With his job, he provided for Kitchen (who is not the mother of the boy) and her cousins, who also lived at the apartment, family said.
"He was as good as anybody," said his sister, Stacie Lovett. He resisted pressures of the street, she said, and did not have an arrest record.
"I don't believe he's gone," Lovett said. "I can't even function right now."
Records show Kitchen has previous arrests on various charges, including strong arm robbery, aggravated battery, burglary and marijuana possession.
Lovett, 26, said she saw her brother about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at their mother's home on 17th Street S in St. Petersburg. He jokingly asked his grandmother to buy him a Lexus, then had Lovett drive him to a gas station to purchase cell phone minutes.
Then she took him to his apartment, just outside the city limits. As they pulled up, Kitchen ran up to the car. "Auntie baby. Auntie baby," she said, referring to Lovett's 1-year-old son in the white Dodge Neon.
Kitchen sat in the back playing with the boy, and then they all went inside. Lovett said Kitchen fixed a hamburger on the stove for her boyfriend and went into her room for three Pepsis.
"I'll see y'all later," Lovett said, and left.
An hour later, her brother was dead.
Salary, who had seven siblings, played youth football for the St. Pete L'il Devils and attended Dixie Hollins High School. He worked as a detailer at Kenny's Car Care, down the street from his mother's home.
"All he talked about was his kid," said Canfall, his best friend. "He wanted the best for him."
As just-washed cars emerged from the shop Wednesday, Canfall stood to the side with a picture of his friend. He was silent, reflective for a few moments. Then he turned the photograph to others. "That's him, man," he said. "Always smiling."
