Jul 18, 2003  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

A 19-year-old youth who worked for a gay escort service in Philadelphia allegedly stabbed D.C. accountant Michael Kainer to death inside Kainer’s District apartment on June 5, and then stole more than $60,000 in cash and an expensive plasma television from the apartment, according to a police affidavit.

The affidavit, filed July 9 in D.C. Superior Court, says suspect Luis Alberto Villafane returned to his home in Philadelphia on the day of the murder, where he used $32,000 of the stolen cash to buy a new Volvo. He then drove to Florida to take a vacation, the affidavit says.

Villafane has been charged with first-degree felony murder while armed in connection with Kainer’s death. He is being held without bond in the D.C. jail. The police affidavit says Villafane confessed to committing the murder when police questioned him following a search of his Philadelphia apartment on June 22.

D.C. police said the stolen cash was part of the proceeds Kainer earned from an illegal drug trafficking business, which he allegedly operated out of his carriage house apartment in the 100 block of U Street, N.W.

Those who knew Kainer said his murder has shaken a part of the gay male social circle where drugs are bought and sold, and has drawn renewed attention to the use of drugs in a part of the gay club scene.

A D.C. police homicide detective said the motive for the murder was robbery and was not related to Kainer’s alleged drug dealing business. However, one of Kainer’s friends, who spoke on condition that he remain anonymous, said he doubts the murder would have occurred had Kainer not been involved in selling drugs.

“I feel the murder was drug-related because this was a drug dealer with an insane amount of money in his apartment,” subjecting Kainer to great danger, said the friend.

D.C. police homicide detective Anthony Patterson confirmed reports by people who knew Villafane that the youth worked as an escort for a Philadelphia gay male escort service. The escort service included a photo of Villafane on its Web site before removing the photo at the time of Villafane’s arrest.

Patterson said Kainer met Villafane before Villafane began working for the escort service, and that Kainer was not believed to be one of his escort customers.

Suspect returned to find police searching his home U.S. marshals transported Villafane from Philadelphia to D.C. on July 8, two weeks after Philadelphia police arrested him in an apartment in the Arts Tower, an apartment building in the heart of Philadelphia’s Center City gay neighborhood. Villafane was arraigned in D.C. Superior Court on July 9.

Villafane’s arrest in Philadelphia took place after D.C. police homicide detectives presented Philadelphia authorities with information that linked Villafane to the murder. Philadelphia authorities then obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of Villafane’s apartment in the 1300 block of Locust Street, the affidavit says.

A 42-inch plasma television that had been stolen from Kainer’s apartment was discovered in Villafane’s apartment, the affidavit says. Villafane’s newly purchased Volvo was also found at the apartment building, the affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, Villafane arrived at the apartment at the time the police search was being conducted. He agreed to accompany police to the homicide branch, where “the defendant admitted to killing Michael Jerome Kainer,” the affidavit says.

“The defendant told detectives after killing the decedent on June 5, 2003, he returned to Philadelphia, purchased the new Volvo, then drove later to Florida to vacation,” the affidavit says. “The defendant also told detectives that evidence related to the murder could be found in his car. The detectives later recovered three bloody knives and bloody clothing from the defendant’s vehicle,” the affidavit says.

D.C. police discovered Kainer’s body on the kitchen floor of his apartment on June 10, the affidavit says. The affidavit says Kainer suffered from multiple stab wounds. An earlier police statement said there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment.

Brad Harris, a friend of Kainer’s for more than 10 years, said Kainer worked for a large accounting firm in the 1990s. Harris called Kainer intelligent, charming and well liked by a wide circle of friends. But Kainer withdrew from many of his friends in recent years after becoming consumed by the drug scene, Harris said.

“It’s truly sad how different he had become,” Harris said. “It’s almost like we knew this day was coming.”

The friend who spoke on condition that he not be identified said he did not think Kainer and Villafane had a sexual relationship. According to the friend, Villafane stayed at Kainer’s apartment ...