Orlando homicides already top 2017; 10 are unsolved

Filmoore Cain said seeing his son’s killer brought to justice will not erase his pain.

“We will never have closure,” he said. “But we will have some satisfaction that someone will pay for what they did.”

The killing of Cain’s 38-year-old son, Lloyd “Steven” Cain, is among the 10 homicide cases this year that remain unsolved by the Orlando Police Department.

There have already been 31 homicides in Orlando this year, compared with 28 for all of 2017 and 37 the year before, which does not include the 49 killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting. There were six homicides each in June and July.

Sgt. Joe Capece, head of the homicide division, said there’s no particular reason for the increase as motives for homicides have run the gamut from domestic to drugrelated. The age and racial makeup of victims have also varied, Capece said.

Chief John Mina said police cannot predict homicides.

“Unlike car burglaries or robberies, which we can go after proactively with enforcement efforts and operations, there are no trends in the homicides that we are seeing,” he said.

Detectives are still working to solve many of those cases, having so far closed only about 60 percent of the 25 homicide cases with 31 victims.

That’s below the 85 percent OPD closed in each of the past two years.

Capece said he thinks the closure rate will be between 80 percent and 85 percent by this time next year.

He said detectives have suspects in some of the cases, though he declined to say which ones.

“Our detectives are very tenacious and are good advocates for victims and their families,” he said. “We do anticipate our clearance rate to go up.”

Of the 15 cases considered closed, Orlando police have made 10 arrests; three cases are under review by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office to determine if they are justifiable homicides; and two suspects are dead, including Gary Lindsey Jr., who committed suicide after killing four children in June.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has 35 homicide cases this year, according to medical examiner records, with 11 still open. Five of those homicides are at the state attorney to determine if they are justifiable, the sheriff’s office said. It is on pace to surpass last year’s total of 42 homicides. The agency’s 69 percent closure rate so far this year matches the rate in 2016. It was 44 percent in 2015.

Two of the unsolved homicides in Orange are Sasha Garden, a 27-year-old transgender woman found shot to death July 19 in the back of an apartment complex on Holden Avenue and Imelda “Tia” Francois, a pregnant woman shot to death in a car in Pine Hills on July 16.

“We constantly work together with our community or any witness that were on scene to help in solving a case,” said Sgt. Ingrid Tejada-Monforte. “Our investigators are working diligently in solving these cases.”

The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office has solved four of five homicides this year, while deputies in Osceola have solved four of six. Lake County sheriff’s deputies are still working to solve one of the two homicides this year.

Lloyd Cain, who went by his middle name Steven, was shot to death March 23 in his apartment on West Central Boulevard. A stray bullet fired by the killer went through the floor and hit Michael Carter, 57, who was sleeping in the apartment below.

Cain was set to marry his fiance Leonia Barnes, 40, in June.

“He didn’t bother nobody,” said Barnes. “He wasn’t in the streets. He provided for his family. He was a working man.”

He was just hired to do maintenance at a bus company the day before he was killed, Barnes said. She last talked to him about 12:15 a.m., which was about 30 minutes before the shooting.

Someone called her to tell her what happened.

“I thought it was a joke,” she said. “I was like ‘I just talked to him.’”

His father said he “froze” when he found out and couldn’t get himself to leave his home for several hours.

“I wasn’t my normal self,” he said.

Cain’s family said Orlando police detectives have worked hard on the case, although his father argued more resources would be devoted to it if the killing had happened in a rich area.

“They’d be out there 24-7,” he said.

Barnes said she believes her fiance knew his killer because he let them inside the apartment. Filmoore Cain said he thinks the case will be solved eventually.

“I know these things take time,” he said. “As time goes on, information is going to seep out. I don’t think a normal man can keep something like this to himself.”

Anyone with information about any open cases is asked to call Crimeline at 407-423-8477.