Photo Courtesy of Law & Crime
After more than five years, justice has finally been served for the victims and their families of the Seminole Heights killings that rocked the Tampa, Florida area in 2017.
Howell Donaldson III, the man accused of randomly shooting and killing four people, has pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and has been sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison.
The victims of the Seminole Heights killings were Benjamin Mitchell, 22, Monica Hoffa, 32, Anthony Naiboa, 20, and Ronald Felton, 60. All four were shot in separate incidents over the course of several weeks in October and November 2017.
The four seemingly unconnected victims were each killed while walking alone at night within a half-mile area, leading to a massive manhunt by authorities. The killings sparked widespread fear and prompted authorities to advise residents to not go outside alone, to be alert, and keep their porch lights on.
Donaldson was tied to the shooting deaths of the four victims through a firearm that was found by police after a tip from a manager at a local McDonald’s, where Donaldson worked.
Cell phone location data also connected Donaldson to an address in Seminole Heights, Tampa near the scenes of the first three murders on the same dates and times as those murders.
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According to CNN, Donaldson’s guilty plea and life sentence come after prosecutors with the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office had previously said they would seek the death penalty if the case had gone to trial.
The families of the victims have been waiting for justice for years and State Attorney Suzy Lopez said during a news conference 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.