Police search man’s home in fatal beating

Spokane police detectives have searched the home of a possible suspect in connection with the beating of a man who had a tread mark from a boot or shoe on his forehead and died of a skull fracture.

Police confiscated a pair of boots from a vehicle, and detectives found what appeared to be a blood-stained towel in the closet of the man who witnesses said threatened to kill 44-year-old Steven Allison in April, according to court records.

However, the man has not been charged in connection with the case, and police issued a press release Friday announcing a $2,000 reward for information in the case.

Police spokesman Dick Cottam said he spoke with Detective Tim Madsen and his supervisor.

“They think somebody probably knows more than what they’ve said,” Cottam said. “That’s why they offered the reward.”

According to court records, Officer Jamie Pavlischak found Allison disoriented and bleeding just after midnight June 29 near the 1500 block of West Nora Avenue.

“Allison was bleeding from his head and face, both eyes were puffy and black and he had a laceration on his head,” Madsen wrote in court records. “Pavlischak noted on Allison’s forehead was what appeared to be a herringbone style partial shoe print.”

Pavlischak drove Allison to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he later fell into a coma. Allison died July 3 after his family decided to remove him from life support.

Allison’s sister, Debbie Allison, said she spoke to Madsen on Thursday.

“He said they had no new leads,” Allison said. “He said they are investigating, and that’s all they told us. We would like to be informed of what they are finding out.”

The Spokesman-Review is not identifying the possible suspect named in the July 7 search warrant because he has not been charged in connection with Allison’s death.

“Everybody has been talking to me about that,” the man said in an interview Friday at his North Central home. “I don’t know who did this to (Allison). It’s just a sad way to go.”

Madsen wrote in court records that he checked police records and found the same man had been charged with burglary in April after he reportedly went to the home on West Grace where Allison had been living with the man’s former girlfriend.

The former girlfriend, Debbie Brown, said she had lived with Allison for the past six or seven years. Their friendship was platonic, she said.

“He was just a good guy. He went through some hardships,” Brown said of Allison. “He doesn’t like to be alone, so he decided to stay here.”

The now-ex-boyfriend didn’t like her living situation, Brown said.

“He feels I’m messing around,” she said. But as for the April encounter, “he didn’t do nothing to hurt Steve.”

According to the search warrant, another witness in Brown’s house April 2 heard the former boyfriend yell, “I’m going to kill everyone around you” and threaten to assault Allison.

On July 6, detectives Madsen and Mark Burbridge visited Brown’s ex-boyfriend and questioned him about Allison’s death.

He “had no idea who assaulted Allison,” Madsen wrote of the man’s comments. He claimed to have been paving a parking lot behind Holy Family Hospital from 5 p.m. June 28 to 1 a.m. June 29.

The man’s roommate, who worked on the same construction crew, told Burbridge the same thing except said that the Holy Family paving job ended about 3 a.m. June 29.

Madsen then called their employer. The business owner stated that he had no crew working June 28 because it was raining. A crew worked June 29 and finished about 4 p.m., according to the search warrant.

Based on the conflicting stories, the detectives did a second interview with the roommate July 7.

The roommate said Debbie Brown called June 29 and told both men that Allison had been beaten and was in the hospital, Madsen wrote.

The possible suspect then told his roommate that he needed him “to cover for him and when the police talked to him, to tell the police they were together working that night,” the roommate told Madsen in court records.

The roommate then told the detectives that the possible suspect gave him a pair of work boots, which the roommate placed in his Bronco.

The roommate “drew a tread pattern on the boots, which appeared to be wavy lines similar to a herringbone pattern,” Madsen wrote. The boots were confiscated during the search warrant.

In the interview with a reporter Friday, Brown’s ex-boyfriend said he considered Allison “a nice guy.”

He said the only reason detectives executed the search warrant was because of the incident in April.

“That’s between me and my girlfriend and Steve. I yelled at Steve for being in the house,” the man said Friday.

The night Allison was assaulted, the former cook – who once worked at the Coeur d’Alene Resort before two open-heart surgeries disabled him – spent time at the West Sinto home of a friend, Ronda White, before leaving about 8 p.m.

“He had a fear of walking on the west side, but he wouldn’t take a ride,” White said. “He was just an awesome fella.”