Witnesses’ testimony over subsequent years helped identify assailant
A suspect was arrested on Feb. 9 in connection with the murder of a Miami man named Esco Hunter Jr. — a case that had “remained unsolved for more than two decades,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office announced on Feb. 17.
Kevin Maurice Holloway, 55, of 1854 24th St. in Sarasota, has been charged with one count of homicide without premeditation; two counts of tampering with evidence in a capital felony crime; and first-degree arson, his Sheriff’s Office booking record notes. No bond was set on any of the charges except the tampering counts; the amount for each is $15,000, for a total of $30,000.
Holloway was scheduled to be arraigned on March 13, the booking record also says, but 12th Judicial Circuit Court records show that he has waived arraignment, pleaded “Not guilty” to the charges, and demanded a jury trial.
“This arrest follows an extensive and renewed investigation conducted by the agency’s Criminal Investigations Section-Cold Case Unit, reflecting Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman’s continued priority of pursuing long-standing unsolved cases and delivering justice for victims and their families,” a news release explained.
During Hoffman’s presentation last summer of his proposed 2026 fiscal year budget to the County Commission, he talked of plans to put a greater focus on solving cold cases, He explained that he routinely gets calls from family members of victims in those cases.
On Nov. 30, 1999, the Sheriff’s Office news release said, “deputies responded to a vehicle fire near the intersection of Myrtle Street and North Orange Avenue in Sarasota.” Firefighters “located a vehicle concealed in a wooded area that was fully engulfed in flames,” the release added. “The vehicle was later identified as belonging to the victim, Esco Hunter Jr.,” the release noted.
The following day — Dec. 1, 1999 — deputies responded to the area of Central Avenue and 43rd Street, less than 1 mile from the site of the burned vehicle, where they discovered Hunter’s body, the release said. The District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that Hunter died from “multiple gunshot wounds,” the release added, so that office “ruled the manner of death a homicide.”
Over the years, the release continued, Sheriff’s Office investigators “continued to review evidence, conduct interviews, and analyze forensic findings.” Further, as part of Sheriff Hoffman’s “ongoing commitment to cold case resolution, the Cold Case Unit re‑examined witness statements, telephone records, and physical evidence, which ultimately led to the development of new and corroborating information,” the release explained.
“Investigators also credit the willingness of new witnesses to come forward, whose information provided critical insight that helped advance this long-standing investigation,” it said.
“Through persistent investigative efforts, detectives were able to establish probable cause identifying Kevin Holloway as the suspect,” the release pointed out.
“SCSO worked in close partnership with the State Attorney’s Office and the District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office throughout the course of this investigation. This coordinated effort ensured a thorough review of evidence and reinforced the integrity of the case as it moved forward, the release continued.
The Sheriff’s Office “remains steadfast in its dedication to reviewing unsolved cases and pursuing accountability, no matter how much time has passed,” the news release added. “While no arrest can undo the loss suffered, it is our agency’s hope that this development brings a measure of comfort and long-awaited justice to Esco Hunter Jr.’s family,” it said.
Anyone with additional information related to this investigation is encouraged to contact the SCSO Criminal Investigations Section Cold Case Unit at coldcase@sarasotasheriff.org.
Details of the 1999 incident
The Probable Cause Affidavit in the Holloway case began in 1999, The Sarasota News Leader learned in reviewing it. The affidavit explained that Sheriff’s Office personnel discovered that the vehicle they had found engulfed in flames near the intersection of Myrtle Street and North Orange Avenue in Sarasota was identified later as a 1998 Ford van belonging to Hunter, who was a Miami resident.
When deputies located Hunter’s body on Dec. 1, 1999, the affidavit continued, it was “lying in a grassy area between Central Avenue and the railroad tracks.” He had sustained “multiple gunshot wounds to the back and head,” it noted.
An expended .40 caliber shell casing was discovered between the victim’s shirt and abdomen, the affidavit added.
On Dec. 2, 1999, the affidavit continued, members of the Florida Fire Marshal’s Office examined the van and determined that the fire “originated inside the passenger compartment and was intentionally set. Two expended .40 caliber shell casings were recovered from inside the vehicle, and investigators observed a perforation consistent with a bullet hole in the rear passenger floorboard,” the affidavit noted.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined that the shell casings in the van matched the one from the scene where Hunter’s body was found.
Given those findings, the affidavit said, Sheriff’s Office detectives traveled to Miami “to interview the victim’s family and friends. Detectives learned the victim had a childhood friend, Kevin Holloway, who was living in Sarasota … at the time of the homicide,” the affidavit added.
When the detectives contacted Holloway at his Sarasota home on Dec. 3, 1999, the affidavit continued, he “voluntarily accompanied [them] to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office for an interview regarding his relationship with the victim.”
Holloway told the detectives that he and Hunter were childhood friends, and he “claimed he last spoke with [Hunter]” approximately two or three months prior to that interview. He denied having any information about the homicide, the affidavit said.
However, the detectives “observed and photographed what appeared to be injuries to Holloway’s face and hands. Holloway stated he sustained the injuries when he “leaned too close to the stove while cooking cocaine into crack,” the affidavit noted.
Then, on Dec. 4, 1999, the affidavit said, the detectives learned that Hunter “had been traveling from Miami to Sarasota to conduct narcotics transactions with Holloway” and a “drug partner” of Holloway; the affidavit identified the latter as Dayle Thompson.
Further, the affidavit continued, detectives interviewed Hunter’s brother, “who reported that during a summer 1999 trip to Sarasota, he was present when [Hunter] confronted Holloway about a rumor that Holloway planned to rob him, which Hunter denied.”
During that trip, the brother told the detectives, he and Hunter stayed in a Super 8 motel. Hunter’s family later provided documents to the Sheriff’s Office that corroborated that statement, the affidavit added.
“Records obtained during the original investigation reflect [that] Holloway resided at 4023 Bahama Drive in Sarasota at the time of the homicide,” the affidavit said. Further, “[s]ubpoenaed telephone records revealed that on November 29, 1999, Holloway’s residence called the victim’s cellular telephone five (5) times between 2:16 p.m. and 9:43 p.m. The call at 9:43 p.m. was the final call placed to the victim and occurred approximately four hours and twenty minutes before the victim’s vehicle was discovered burned.
The records also showed calls placed at 1:06 p.m. and 4:03 p.m., “on the same date” to numbers associated with Holloway’s relatives, the affidavit added.
Years-later witness accounts provide new links between suspect and victim
In 2003, the affidavit continued, a witness reported that the person who was identified in 1999 as Holloway’s “drug partner,” Dayle Thompson, told that witness that Thompson and Holloway met Hunter “near Booker High School [in Sarasota] for a narcotics transaction involving 18 ounces of cocaine. Thompson described how they were seated inside the victim’s vehicle,” with the victim in the driver’s seat, “Thompson in the front passenger seat, and Holloway seated behind the victim in the rear passenger seat,” the affidavit said.
During the same conversation, the witness told Sheriff’s Office investigators, Thompson also reported to the witness that “Holloway produced a firearm and shot the victim in the back of the head. Thompson further stated he and Holloway stripped the victim of his clothing, dumped him, and parked the van at an unknown location.”
Then, in 2018, the affidavit noted, a detective interviewed “another witness who reported picking Holloway up during the early morning hours following the homicide near 27th Street and the railroad tracks, approximately 0.83 miles from where the victim’s body was found. The witness observed Holloway to be nervous and noticed burn injuries on his hand and face,” the affidavit said. “Holloway told the witness he had shot and burned [Hunter].”
Additionally, a detective learned that Holloway “was involved in a romantic relationship with Tiffany Butler. On March 9, 2024,” the affidavit continued, the detective contacted Butler and learned from her “that Holloway had previously made a statement to her indicating he had killed his best friend and that his other best friend” — identified as Dayle Thompson — “was dying of cancer.
“Butler also reported that Holloway was sending her threatening messages after breaking up with her …” She agreed to provide those messages to the Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit noted.
The detective was able to document “threatening communications from Holloway,” the affidavit added.
“During a text exchange on March 10, 2024,” the affidavit continued, “Holloway threatened Butler. Butler responded, ‘yea like u did ya best friend.’ Holloway did not deny the statement and instead replied, ‘see ya mouth you talk to [sic] much,’ ‘Imma do you in ya sleep,’ and ‘really you just expose the reason why you need to die,’ ” the affidavit said.
The detective was able to discover other communications between Butler and Holloway, the affidavit noted. For example, on June 26, 2024, the affidavit continued, “Holloway messaged Butler telling her he was going to attend a funeral for a person unrelated to this investigation. Butler responded that Holloway didn’t even attend Thompson’s funeral.”
Then Holloway messaged Butler, “just worry bout ya last days coming I told you who I want.’ ”
The affidavit pointed out that, three days later, “Holloway continued to threaten Butler,” with Butler’s having conveyed to him that “she was posting messages on Facebook and tagging the Sarasota Police Department.”
Then, on July 4, 2024, the affidavit said, “Holloway escalated from threatening communications to direct violence. At approximately 1:08 a.m., Holloway responded to Butler’s residence, took her phone,” and shot and killed a man named Curtis Taylor, a case that the Sarasota Police Department investigated.
“A review of the evidence establishes multiple corroborating facts not publicly released and consistent with Holloway’s involvement [in Esco’s death],” the affidavit pointed out.
Based on all of that evidence collected during the investigation, the affidavit said, the Sheriff’s Office found probable cause to charge Holloway with the homicide of Esco Hunter Jr.
The prior homicide count
Through a review of the records maintained by Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller Karen Rushing and her staff, the News Leader learned more details about the charges against Holloway in the July 2024 incident.
That Probable Cause Affidavit said that a Sarasota resident, Yooshika Whitfield, told investigators that Holloway had “continually threatened/harassed her” and Tiffany Renae Butler, “stating that he was going to kill them.”
The victim — as noted in the cold case additions to Holloway’s Probable Cause Affidavit in the Hunter death investigation — was identified as Curtis Eugene Taylor, a cousin of Whitfield.
Taylor was visiting Whitfield and Butler in Whitfield’s driveway, the affidavit pointed out, when Holloway approached Whitfield “and pointed [a] firearm directly at her.”
Holloway told her he was going to kill her when she asked him his intention, the affidavit added.
Taylor then told Holloway not to kill Whitfield, Whitfield reported to the investigators. Holloway turned toward Taylor “and fired multiple times at him,” the affidavit continued.
As Whitfield ran from the scene, the affidavit noted, she heard “multiple [gunshots].”
Butler told investigators that Holloway had threatened to kill her and had “verbally abused her,” the affidavit added.
Holloway also was charged with Aggravated Assault with a Firearm and Shooting into an Occupied Dwelling after he later fired his gun into Butler’s home, where she fled, the affidavit pointed out.
He was charged, as well, with Aggravated Assault with a Firearm for threatening “to do violence to Whitfield,” the affidavit said.
Court records indicate that a jury trial in that case had been set for Feb. 17.
Additionally, the News Leader found that Holloway had been charged in January 2006 and April 2009 with possession of controlled substances without a prescription.