A stunning end to the case of the Seminole Heights serial killer this morning, as Howell Donaldson III entered a guilty plea to all four murders, and will serve four consecutive life terms in prison. Public Defender Jennifer Holt says her client agreed to the plea deal in order to avoid the possibility of the death penalty. Donaldson is accused of the random killings of four people, Benjamin Mitchell, Monica Hoffa, Anthony Naiboa, and Ronald Felton in October of 2017. Mikesha Brown is the sister of one of his victims, Benjamin Mitchell....and didn't hold back in her victim impact statement. "As I look at you today," Brown said, "I don't know if it's pity that you're feeling, if it's sorrow, or if you're just, like 'it's finally over.' It may be over for you, but it will never be over for us."
Brown went on to say that she could not forgive Donaldson for what he did, and bluntly wished him dead.
Mitchell's mother, Brenda Samuel, called Donaldson a coward, and said she hopes his time in prison is a "long journey to hell and back."
Meanwhile, Hillsborough State Attorney Susan Lopez is explaining her decision to accept the plea offer. She says victims' families overwhelmingly agreed to the sentence life without parole to avoid a lengthy trial. But not all. "In fact," Lopez said, "there was one family member who would have preferred for the defendant to go to trial to face the possibility of the death penalty."
Lopez insisted that the case "remains a Death Penalty case" but said that family members feel exhausted after six years of hearings. She says she accepted the deal to spare them the nightmare of reliving those murders through years of appeals.
photo: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office