Trucker charged with murdering prostitute in motel room left shoes behind: affidavit
A Wichita trucker charged with intentionally murdering a woman in her south Broadway motel room in October was caught on surveillance video running shoeless from the crime scene to his semi, holding his pants, according to an arrest affidavit that gives new details about what police discovered as they investigated the killing.
When he was interviewed by Wichita cops, Ricky L. Hollins Jr. admitted that he went to the Budget Motel, 1315 S. Broadway, with a friend on Oct. 21 to receive oral sex from 33-year-old Stephanie Renee Duran. But he told them she was still fully clothed and alive when he left the $40 encounter.
The hotel owner, however, discovered Duran’s battered body the next morning, naked below her waist and lying facedown on the floor of Room 24. She been beaten on her head and face plus showed signs of having been choked, the affidavit says, and authorities found a glass candle holder with blood on it on the floor.
They also found a can of mace by her body, as well as drug paraphernalia in the room, a used condom in the trash can, and a pair of men’s athletic sneakers in size 10 under the bed — the same size Hollins wears.
The motel’s video surveillance footage showed Duran, who also went by “Lil Sexy,” and Hollins in the parking lot talking with Hollins’ friend after 9 p.m. the night before Duran was found dead. Hollins and Duran went into her motel room together sometime shortly after 9:19 p.m.
The video shows Hollins running from the room 24 minutes later, at 9:43 p.m., carrying his pants on his right arm. He had no shoes on, the affidavit says.
The man who went to the motel with Hollins told police they had “gone for the purpose of them both to have sex with the same female, but one after the other.” Hollins went first while his friend waited in the semi truck.
“About twenty minutes later, Ricky ran back to the truck” and “told him that he’d been robbed by three unknown males and that he’d been maced,” the affidavit says the friend told police.
During his police interview, Hollins said he had parked his semi in a lot to the north of the motel, negotiated a $40 payment for oral sex, paid Duran and went into her room but said neither got undressed for the sex act. After it was over, Hollins told police, Duran “walked him to the door and he ‘jogged’ to the semi” to rejoin his friend.
“He claimed the shoes he was wearing at the time of his arrest were the same shoes he’d worn into the motel room,” the affidavit says.
When police announced Duran’s slaying in October, they were tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding her death. Her autopsy determined her cause of death to be blunt force trauma with evidence indicating she’d also been asphyxiated. A GoFundMe site has been set up to pay for Duran’s funeral expenses.
Sedgwick County District Court Judge Eric Williams released the affidavit Monday in response to a request from The Eagle. The defense lawyer had argued it should remain sealed, citing purported threats Hollins’ family received after his arrest, court records show. But the judge ruled in favor of the newspaper.
Prosecutors in October charged Hollins with first-degree premeditated murder and patronizing a prostitute in the case. He remains in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond, online booking records show.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
