Published: Saturday, February 21, 2004

AUSTIN (AP) — A Travis County jury convicted a part-time music minister of capital murder Friday in the strangulation killing of a woman who believed she was showing her home to a potential buyer.

Patrick Russo, 40, faces life in prison or possibly the death penalty when sentenced next week. He had pleaded innocent.

Prosecutors said Russo posed a home buyer to get into Diane Holik's house in November 2001. Holik, 42, planned to sell the home, get married and move to Houston. Russo claimed he could afford to buy the $450,000 house even though he had less than $2,000 in his bank account.

A real estate agent who testified in the case said she was "petrified" when she showed Russo some vacant homes in May 2001.

"I was one of the first people to report him to the police and I wasn't taken seriously then," Melody Blount told the Austin American-Statesman for its online edition Friday. "When Holik was killed, I called police and said 'It's him."'

Russo was a part-time music minister at a Bastrop church and the lead singer in a Christian band. He stood quietly with his attorneys upon hearing the verdict. He then sat down and covered his face with his hands.

Jurors had two pieces of evidence that tied Russo to the crime scene: DNA from a hair that matched his and DNA from a swab taken from Holik's left hand.

Prosecutors said Russo frequented Internet sites that contained stories and photos about asphyxiating women.

"He's a predator," said prosecutor Robert Smith, "skilled at deceit and cunning and finding watering holes of potential victims."

Diane T Holik