TAMPA, Fla. — Howell Donaldson III admitted to killing four people over a period of several weeks during the fall of 2017 in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood — a sudden development Monday morning in a years-long case.
Donaldson pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that will have him serve four consecutive life sentences, according to court spokesperson Mike Moore.
He will avoid being sentenced to death because of the plea.
"This remains and always will be a death penalty case. What this man did to four families and a small community within the city of Tampa is cold, calculated and unforgivable," State Attorney Suzy Lopez said during a news conference.
Authorities tied Donaldson to the shooting deaths of Benjamin Mitchell, Monica Hoffa, Anthony Naiboa and Ronald Felton.
Lopez explained that her office had the "moral and ethical obligation" to present Donaldson's guilty plea offer to the victim's families, who overwhelmingly supported it.
“This will not end the pain and suffering for them, but it will close a painful chapter in this story and begin to provide finality that a trial or death sentence would not provide," she said.
An investigation began in earnest on Oct. 9, 2017, when officers found Mitchell, 22, dead at a bus stop along North 15th Street and East Frierson Avenue. His parents sent him to the Tampa Bay area to grow up in a safe environment, 10 Tampa Bay reported at the time.
Mitchell aspired to be a musician.
Remembering 4 lives lost in the Seminole Heights killings
Officers responded early in the morning on Oct. 13, 2017, near the intersection of East New Orleans Avenue and North 10th Street where the body of 32-year-old Monica Hoffa was found. She was shot on Oct. 11, 2017, police said.
Hoffa lived in South Carolina but her father, Kenny Hoffa, at the time said his daughter spent most of her time with her mother, who lives in the Tampa area. Monica Hoffa's mother is deaf so she spent most of her time helping interpret for her, her father told 10 Tampa Bay.
"Can you help us find my daughter's killer," Kenny Hoffa tweeted at then-President Donald Trump, 10 days after his daughter’s body was found.
The Tampa Police Department announced on Oct. 20, 2017, that 20-year-old Naiboa was the third person killed in the Seminole Heights neighborhood. The recent high school graduate who had autism had accidentally taken the wrong bus home and ended up in the Seminole Heights neighborhood, then-Tampa Interim Police Chief Brian Dugan said.
"I just hope that someone just realizes the pain that our family, Monica’s family, as well as Benjamin’s family, is going through because justice has to prevail," said Maria Rodriguez, Naiboa's stepmother.
Amid the investigation, authorities faced pressure to find the gunman. Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are offered a $25,000 reward — a figure that would continue increasing — for information leading to the arrest and conviction in the Seminole Heights killings.
On Oct. 22, 2017, hundreds of people joined together in a vigil to honor the victims by quietly walking with candles in hand to the locations where police found each victim.
Days later, on Oct. 25, 2017, then-Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn again called upon Tampa police to hunt down the "son of a b***h."
“This guy is not going to win,” Buckhorn said while addressing officers during a special roll call in Giddens Park. “He’s not taking over this neighborhood. You guys go hunt him down and bring his head to me.”
Widespread fear prompted Buckhorn and Dugan to join the community trick-or-treating in the Seminole Heights neighborhood for Halloween.
But on Nov. 14, 2017, officers found 60-year-old Felton dead near North Nebraska Avenue near East McBerry Street. It's believed Felton was crossing the street to meet with someone when a suspect came up from behind and shot him.
Pastor Glenn Dames of Allen Temple A-M-E Church called Felton a "Superman of service."
“I want you to know brother Felton trusted God. That's why he would wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to make his way to the kitchen to set up for those who needed a meal because he trusted God and he knew God wasn't going to let him down,” he said. “Even though the enemy thought he was taking him down, he didn't know brother Felton had another home.”
All four shootings happened within blocks of each other; police suspected the shooter chose his targets at random.
The killings sparked a massive manhunt that led to Donaldson's capture at the Ybor City McDonald's where he worked.
Judge Samantha Ward in December 2022 had set the jury selection for Donaldson's trial to begin Aug. 9, 2023, with an expected completion date in two weeks.