(Trends Wide) — A man accused of killing four people in random encounters in the Seminole Heights area of Tampa, Florida, in the fall of 2017, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison Monday.
Howell Donaldson III changed his plea from not guilty to guilty Monday morning and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms for his crimes, according to Mike Moore, public information officer for the Florida 13th Judicial Circuit Court.
Hillsborough prosecutors had previously said they would seek the death penalty if the case went to trial.
The guilty plea and life sentence come more than five years after four people were shot in Seminole Heights in separate incidents over the course of several weeks in October and November 2017.
Shelina Reneau, a family friend of murder victim Monica Hoffa (left), and Hoffa’s cousin Yury Gutierrez (center), react as a state attorney describes Hoffa’s murder during Howell Emanuel’s plea hearing Donaldson III this Monday. (Credit: Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/Zuma Press)
According to police, the four victims, apparently unrelated to one another, were murdered — but not robbed — while walking alone at night within a half-mile radius, raising fears a serial killer was on the loose. Agents surrounded the wooded neighborhood, advising residents not to go out alone, to stay alert and keep their porch lights on. Some residents stopped walking their dogs, jogging, taking walks or waiting for the bus alone, saying they no longer felt safe.
Police released two blurry videos of a suspect in the murders, to no avail. A breakthrough finally came in November, when the manager of a local McDonald’s told police that an employee had given him a firearm for safekeeping and intended to leave the state, according to police.
That employee, Donaldson, had purchased the firearm, which was connected to the first three murders, according to a criminal affidavit. Additionally, cell phone location data connected Donaldson to a Seminole Heights address near the scenes of the first three slayings on the same dates and times as the slayings, according to the criminal affidavit.
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Benjamin Mitchell, 22, a full-time student at Hillsborough Community College, was shot to death at a bus stop in the Seminole Heights neighborhood on October 9.
Monica Hoffa, a 32-year-old waitress, was shot to death on October 11. Her body was found two days later in an empty parking lot.
Anthony Naiboa, 20, who suffers from autism and had just started a temporary job packing relief supplies for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, was shot Oct. 19 when he accidentally got on the wrong bus and ended up in Seminole Heights.
Ronald Felton, 60, a construction worker with three adult children, was shot in the back on November 14.
Trends Wide has contacted Donaldson’s attorney for comment.
