Howell Donaldson’s mugshot released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Read
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 24-year-old man suspected of randomly killing four people and terrorizing a Florida neighborhood for several months.
Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren announced the decision during a Tuesday morning news conference in Tampa.
Howell Emanuel Donaldson III is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
He was arrested November 28 after handing a bag containing a handgun to a co-worker at a McDonald’s restaurant near the Seminole Heights neighborhood where the victims were apparently randomly picked off as they walked.
Prosecutors have said the ballistics tests show the weapon was used in the shootings.
‘A prosecutor’s pursuit of justice should be tempered by mercy, but some crimes are so unconscionable, so hard to fathom that we must leave mercy to a higher power and instead focus on achieving justice for the victims and their families,’ Warren said.
Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren announced the decision to seek the death penalty against Donaldson during a Tuesday morning news conference in Tampa
Donaldson, who goes by Trai because it is a family name, is accused of fatally shooting Benjamin Mitchell, Monica Hoffa, Anthony Naiboa and Ronald Felton. He is seen above being led by law enforcement officials into the Orient Road Jail in Tampa on November 29
Some families of the victims – Benjamin Mitchell, 22, Monica Hoffa, 32, Anthony Naiboa, 20, Ronald Felton, 60 – told prosecutors they favored the death penalty for Donaldson while others preferred a life sentence, Warren said.
In the end, he said, all of the families were OK with proceeding with the death sentence.
‘The death penalty is for the worst of the worst, crimes that are far more egregious than the typical murder, and that’s exactly what we have here,’ Warren said, adding that Donaldson is accused of killing for people in a ‘cold, calculating and premeditated manner.’
Gail Rogers works at the McDonald’s with Donaldson, and told The Tampa Bay Times last November that Donaldson walked into the restaurant in his work uniform and asked the manager to hold his loaded 9mm handgun.
Donaldson makes his first court appearance in front of Judge Margaret Taylor at the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex in Tampa on November 30, 2017
He then walked to Amscot to get a payday loan, and the manager had Rogers alert a female officer in the McDonald’s about what had just happened. That officer then called for backup.
Rogers told the Times that Donaldson had worked at that McDonald’s for about four months, and said he arrived at work driving a red Ford Mustang.
The car is believed to belong to his father.
Donaldson was born in North Carolina but spent most of his life in Tampa before going to play college basketball at St John’s University in New York.
Police Chief Brian Dugan told reporters in November that a man was brought in for questioning in connection with the murders.
The killings started on October 9 in the city’s Seminole Height’s neighborhood.
Howell Donaldson was arrested after police received a tip from a McDonald’s staff member Tuesday afternoon about a man with a gun and brought him in for questioning
Police connected the killings based on their methodology – meaning they were all killed in the same way, which is common for serial killers.
Each of the four victims was killed but not robbed while they walked along at night within a half-mile area of the Seminole Heights neighborhood.
The victims, though, didn’t have any common similarities based on race, age or occupation.
The first attack happened on October 9 when Benjamin Mitchell was shot dead after getting off a bus in the neighborhood at night.
Two days after Mitchell, 22, was shot, Monica Hoffa, 32, was gunned down.
And on October 19, Anthony Naiboa, 20, was shot after taking the wrong bus home from his new job.
The first attack happened on October 9 when Benjamin Mitchell (left) was shot dead after getting off a bus in the neighborhood at night. Two days after Mitchell, 22, was shot, Monica Hoffa, (right) 32, was gunned down
On October 19, Anthony Naiboa, (left) 20, was shot after taking the wrong bus home from his new job. Then on November 14 Ronald Felton (right) was crossing at Nebraska and Wilder when a man dressed in all black came up behind him and shot him
Each of the four victims was killed but not robbed while they walked along at night within a half-mile are of the Seminole Heights neighborhood
Police patrolling nearby heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene to find Naiboa dead.
Then in late October Dugan released a blurry video of a suspect, who can be seen wearing a hooded jacket and walking down a street near one of the shootings.
He then released another video on November 16 of who he believes is the same man, who was present near the fatal shooting of Ronald Felton.
Felton was the last of the four victims to be killed, and was shot on November 14.
Police said the victim, a construction worker and father of three adult children, was crossing at Nebraska and Wilder when a man dressed in all black came up behind him and shot him.
Dugan described the suspect in the video as a thin light-skinned black man between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches.