Howell Donaldson III stands in the Hillsborough Courthouse on Monday, May 1, 2023, in Tampa. The Florida man pleaded guilty to randomly shooting four people in a 2017 killing rampage that set a Tampa neighborhood on edge for weeks. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A man pleaded guilty to being the serial killer who terrorized a Florida neighborhood over the course of almost two months. Howard Donaldson III, 30, shot and killed four people in the fall of 2017. For that, he received four consecutive life sentences, prosecutors announced on Monday.
"This coward committed unspeakable acts and wreaked havoc on our community for weeks on end. He will now be locked in a prison cell for the rest of his life where he will make no more headlines," said State Attorney Suzy Lopez of the 13th Judicial Circuit. "We do this with the blessing of the victims' family members who can now move forward without a lengthy trial or appeals process. We honor Ben, Monica, Anthony, and Ronald's memories as we close this painful chapter for their families and our community."
Authorities in Tampa, Florida, said he shot and killed each of the victims in the Seminole Heights neighborhood. The murder weapon was a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun.
- Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was shot four times while waiting at a bus stop on. Oct. 9, 2017.
- Monica Hoffa, 32, was shot three times on Oct. 11, 2017, around the time she was supposed to meet a friend of hers.
- Anthony Naiboa, 20, was shot once in the head while walking down a street.
- Ronald Felton, 60, was shot and killed while crossing a street. He had reportedly been heading to church to feed the homeless.
"My daughter Monica was like a ray of sunshine with a playful spirit that is deeply missed by all who knew and loved her," said Monica Hoffa's father Kenny Hoffa on Monday. "While nothing will bring our beloved child back, it is a small comfort to know this coward will never hurt another innocent person again. I want to thank Tampa Police and the Seminole Heights community for your unwavering support during this nightmare. My faith in God will pull my family through this latest chapter in our story. We will continually reflect on Monica's incredible zest for life as her memory lives on through the rest of us."
Brian Dugan, then police chief of Tampa, suggested at the time of the unsolved killings that all four deaths were connected.
"It's the time, the methodology, the fact that they were all alone," he said in a press conference. "There is no motive. Nothing is taken or anything like that."
Each of the shootings happened between 7:57 p.m. and 4:50 a.m.
Cops were unable to find a suspect despite having witness statements and some images. That changed when a manager at the McDonald's in the Ybor City neighborhood stepped forward saying that a co-worker, Donaldson, handed over a food bag containing a .40 caliber Glock loaded with SIG brand Smith and Wesson ammunition. This ammo matched the cartridges found at the scenes of the murders.
Another restaurant worker, Gail Rogers, told The Tampa Bay Times in 2017 that Donaldson told the manager that he would text about what to do with it.
"I told her let's tell the police officer," Rogers said.
In a bid to catch the suspect, Tampa police previously released images of a man in the proximity of two of the killings. His face wasn't quite clear, but he had a flip phone and distinctive gait.
"We would tease him and say he was the killer, because he looked like the pictures," Rogers told the Times.
She said she called him the killer to his face.
"He didn't like that."
