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Restaurant worker slain

Police are searching for a white pickup truck that was seen speeding away from Durango's Steakhouse Sunday night.

By MATTHEW WAITE
Published December 12, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - A 29-year-old assistant manager at a Durango's Steakhouse was found murdered in the restaurant early Monday morning in the city's 31st homicide of the year, the most in more than a decade.

Stephen Francis Holmes, who was recently promoted, was closing up the restaurant at 3901 Fourth St. N Sunday night. An employee told police they last saw him alive around 10 p.m.

Just after midnight, an exterminator there for routine work used a key to enter the restaurant and found Holmes "with severe upper body trauma," police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

Minutes before the discovery, a man across the street from the restaurant saw a small white pickup truck speed out of the parking lot, driving over the median on Fourth Street and speeding away southbound, police said.

Police are now searching for that truck statewide. The witness said the truck, an early 1990s model, had a yellow stripe or stripes down the side. The back gate was rusted, the license plate light was out and it had a loud muffler on it.

The owner of the Durango's chain, Burton Bullard, offered a $10,000 reward for anyone giving police information that leads to an arrest and conviction. The restaurant chain is also taking donations for Holmes' family at all area Durango's.

"We are shocked and appalled that something so tragic could happen to one of our own," Bullard wrote in a press release. "We will not rest until Steve's killer or killers are captured."

The death brought St. Petersburg's homicide total so far this year to one more than in 1995, and the most since the crack cocaine epidemic hit the city in 1989, when there were 44 homicides. But at the same time, violent crime overall in the city is down from 2004 levels.

Murders often get most of the public's attention, but when compared to other crimes, they are extremely rare. The largest portion of a city's violent crime rate, classified by federal authorities as aggravated assault, has as much as 100 times more incidents than murder.

In St. Petersburg, through October, aggravated assault was down almost 3 percent when compared to the same time last year. Robbery, the second largest segment of violent crime, was down nearly 10 percent from the year before.

Homicides? Up over 60 percent, with three weeks of 2005 to go.

Explaining the two divergent trends is difficult, St. Petersburg officials said.

"Homicide is that one area that's really hard to put your finger on," said St. Petersburg Police Maj. Ron Hartz, who oversees the homicide detectives. "It can be myriad things."

In 2005, the two most common themes appear to be drugs and domestic violence, police said. Currently, 12 cases are unsolved, and "a majority" of those involve drugs or domestic violence, Hartz said. Of the 19 cases that were closed, police said six are domestic violence cases and three are clearly drug related.

Hartz said drug arrests are up 20 percent this year, and there are many services for victims of domestic violence.

Few of this year's murders have been stranger-on-stranger crimes, police said. But the police can only do so much to stop a murder.

"We could have a thousand sworn officers on the street and you still are not going to prevent many homicides," City Council member Bill Foster said.

Despite the recent increase in homicides, Foster said, St. Petersburg is still a safe place to live.

"If you stay away from crack houses and drugs and situations were dangerous acts could occur, then I think you're as safe here as you would be anywhere."

Holmes' murder, at least preliminarily, appears to be among the rare few where the victim and the perpetrator didn't know each other, drugs weren't involved and there wasn't a domestic spat taking place. Proffitt said the motive in the Holmes case appears to be robbery, but police wouldn't say what was stolen.

Police are asking that anyone with information call Detective Gary Gibson at (727) 893-7512 or the police communications center at (727) 893-7780.

-- Times staff writer Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.

[Last modified December 12, 2005, 19:09:02]