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Losing your daughter, you're going to be devastated. Add to that,
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there's somebody out there who's still doing this.
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We had concern right away after Monica's death that this
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was a spree killer.
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This terrifies this community.
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It's another killing.
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What?
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I said, that's my brother.
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For 51 days not knowing what's going on with these
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murders taking place.
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They're putting together a puzzle, and they have no idea
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what the pieces even look like.
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There were really no red flags in his family.
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He grew up in church. He shouldn't be a serial killer.
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He had a successful life. He had something going on.
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I mean, come on. What really happened?
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Thank you.
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Seminole Heights is a beautiful, historic neighborhood in central Tampa.
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And over the past decade or so, it's really thrived.
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It's a lovely place to live. It's a pretty low
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crime rate. It's a pretty diverse community.
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If he was born and raised here, we always travel
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by feet. It was like a very unique, up-to-class place,
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Seminole Heights.
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The weather's nice. The people are great. Tampa's a great
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place to live. It seemed like, to me, a place
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that I would like to move to one day.
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This Florida neighborhood is also home to Howell Donaldson III.
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Born in 1993, he moves here from North Carolina as
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a young boy with his mom, dad, older sister, and
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younger brother. They have a happy life.
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Donaldson.
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Grew up in Tampa. He had a relatively normal upbringing.
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He was born into a very loving family, a very
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devout family. Religion was very important to them. They were
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active participants. And he really had so many advantages growing up.
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As a criminologist, we look to environment. He is raised
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in a devout Christian home, attends church, and seen as
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doing all the right things as a child growing up.
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He attended and graduated high school here in Tampa. He was,
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by all accounts, a popular kid. He played basketball.
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His parents were loving. His parents owned their own business.
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He lived in a middle-class community. And there were really
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no red flags in his family.
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Seminole Heights is also home to popular student Benjamin Mitchell.
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Benjamin and Donaldson don't know each other and have never met.
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Benjamin Mitchell, 22-year-old African-American.
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On October the 9th, 2017, Ben Mitchell is waiting for
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a bus in Seminole Heights. He's all excited. He's going
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to see his girlfriend.
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He was a full-time college student who had played sports
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and done theater in high school, and he was taking
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the bus and just caught in the wrong place at
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the wrong time.
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And all of a sudden, he's shot and killed. There
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seems to be no motive. Nobody knows who did it.
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And if you're living in this community, it's got to
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be terrifying because this could happen to anybody.
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Mitchell's death was a shock to the community. Most of
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the homicides we see in Tampa is an extremely safe city.
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are between people who know each other or people who
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are fighting for the reasons we commonly see those fights
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over drugs or other illegal activity. But to have a
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young man like Mitchell, who is just going about his day,
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killed for no apparent reason, caused some immediate concern with
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the law enforcement community.
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With no leads, Tampa PD released this video of a
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person of interest in Benjamin's murder. a $ 3, 000 reward is
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offered for information leading to the killer's arrest.
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We often find that once that killer gets past the
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first victim, an ease comes about. Two things that stop
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a serial killer, being caught or dying. For the most part,
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we don't believe that they simply stop.
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I'm Kenny Hoffa. I'm Monica Hoffa's father. You know, we
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had a close father-daughter relationship. When we were together, it
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was like we never missed a beat. She grew up
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in Tampa. She lived with her grandmother and grandfather. Great people.
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They did the majority of her being raised. Her mother
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was deaf, and Monica was kind of her link between
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the hearing world and the deaf world. She had told
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me quite often that she would like to have been
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a deaf interpreter. Her and her mother were very, very close.
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She was really a different kind of light, you know?
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She did not show up for her grandmother's birthday. And,
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you know, it's 24 hours before they could think that
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someone was missing. But it was not like her not
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to be around her grandmother, especially on her birthday.
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A journalist is one of the first to learn of
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Monica's fate. Sick with fear, Kenny receives a devastating call.
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I was actually driving to Tampa and got the phone
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call from my wife. And she said, baby, pull over.
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And I said, why?
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What's wrong?
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What's wrong?
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And a reporter had called her, and she called me.
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And then the reporter wanted to get on the call
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with us, and he told me what happened. It was
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a very bad moment in my life. It was, I
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hope that you never experience anything like it. She was
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shot three times. Left in a overgrown lot. And they
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didn't find her body for two days. And as she
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was walking to meet a friend, And she must have
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recognized that someone was following her, because in this case,
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there were five shots that were fired. Two were misses,
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and the other three killed her.
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It was especially heartbreaking that her body had been laying
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in this tall grass for two days. And so for
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that two days, her family had to wonder and worry
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about where she was. And then they had to worry
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about how long was she alive? You know, was she
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alive for hours? Was she alive for a day? If
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somebody had found her, could they have saved her? I mean,
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these are all the kinds of things that would haunt
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any family member.
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They tell me that she died almost immediately, which is,
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you know, some... some comfort to know that she didn't
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lay in that field for two days and suffer. But still,
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there's really no comfort in it whatsoever.
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Monica's body is found less than a mile from where
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Benjamin was shot.
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So our second victim, Monica Hoffa, 32 years of age,
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white woman, different age, different race, different gender. There's no
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pattern here. Police investigation is looking for clues that link
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people together, time, space, location. These don't have that. They're
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people getting off of public buses. They're people walking down
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the street. This terrifies this community. So you can imagine
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that the police department is perplexed with the ideas of
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what's going to happen next.
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Losing your daughter, no matter what, you're going to be devastated.
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Add to that, you know, there's somebody out there who's
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still doing this.
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This type of crime, just from those two murders... had
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the appearance that it could impact anyone at any time.
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So immediately law enforcement got into action, working with the community,
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working with prosecutors, not just to follow the leads and
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try to find the suspect, but also to take prophylactic
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measures to make sure that this vibrant city could continue
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without a lot of disruption, without a lot of fear.
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Like the rest of the community, James Felton and his brothers,
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twins Ronald and Reggie, were deeply troubled by the murders.
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They helped run a local church and food bank.
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We never think that it would happen like that in
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that area, especially with a business suite. We were saying, oh, okay,
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we need to light up the bus stops. We need
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to be alert. It was kind
of dark going down
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these suites. Sometimes you have to get your flashlight and say, hey,
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this is where I met a stop bus, you know,
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like that. If you see anything that looks suspicious, if
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you got a dog that barked, make sure you check.
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You know, that's after more of the second. That's when
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they start getting serious about it. And so when we
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had the food ministry, you know, they get there like
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4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Hey, don't come
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this early. Come when it's daylight.
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With your typical homicide, you have a relatively small universe
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of suspects. Most murders, the victim and the murderer know
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each other. Here we have a situation where you have
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two victims not doing anything wrong in their lives. It's
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a little bit like searching for a needle in a haystack.
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Law enforcement doesn't know exactly where to start because they're
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putting together a puzzle and they have no idea what
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the pieces even look like. We have immediate concerns because
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you never know what's going to be the next murder.
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But never knew that it was going to happen again
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and again and again. And that's when he started getting
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worried after the second one.
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The apparently random shootings of Benjamin Mitchell and Monica Hoffa
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have sent shockwaves through this usually safe Florida neighborhood. Police
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believe the murders are linked and have CCTV footage of
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a potential suspect, but know nothing about the man in
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the video. Local man, Howell Donaldson III.
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Howell Donaldson III was very interested in athletics, particularly basketball.
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He had his heart set on being a basketball star,
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and he practiced a lot.
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So from this basketball ability that he has, he's searching
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to be that star. And he goes from high school
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to high school looking for that opportunity to be the
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starting guard. But you get this feeling as you're looking
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at his life, he's searching for
something. He's searching for
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the greatness.
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Donaldson absolutely was shooting for the stars. I mean, he
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was willing to give up a lot by changing schools.
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It is very clear that his number one priority in
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high school was basketball. And he was willing to do
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whatever it takes to try to be that basketball star
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that he not only, I think, wanted to be, but
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really saw himself as being.
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Donaldson went up to New York City to St. John's
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University to attend college. He walked onto the basketball team there.
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He played for one year.
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He doesn't get a scholarship. He's not recruited. And so
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he ends up walking on. That's a pretty bold move.
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The odds are stacked against you when you walk on
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at a university and want to be a basketball player.
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But he certainly was motivated to do that. Does that
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mean that Donaldson was unrealistic in terms of his skills?
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Possibly.
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And for somebody, I think, who was invested from a
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very young age in being this basketball star, that would
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have been really disappointing to him. It took him six
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years to get a degree. So we don't know how
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motivated he was to get through school, but we do
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know that he had the self-discipline and the perseverance to
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eventually get a degree.
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Donaldson is back in Seminole Heights with a major in
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sports management and a minor in business. He's working at
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a medical education company, but is aiming higher.
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He was looking for work in the sports industry, potentially
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as an agent.
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The problem with that is that that takes years to
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become a sports agent. And it doesn't seem like Donaldson
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really understood that. And within three months, he's fired. And
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he's fired from absenteeism. He's basically not showing up at work.
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It appears that Donaldson may have had some troubles with
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how difficult life proved to be. Again, a young man
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who had his future in front of him and who
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thought that success maybe would have come a little bit
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more easily than it had. And he didn't quite achieve
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what he had hoped on the basketball court or in
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his professional life at such a young age.
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Now he has housing problems where he's moving from house
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to house, sleeping over at mom's house some days, girlfriend's
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house at another.
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So what we're seeing, I think, is just a slow
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downward spiral. And along this period of time, we start
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seeing some other things happening that I think are adding
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to this downward spiral.
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The question is, how do you respond to those low points?
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What is going to be the action when these tough
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situations of life continuously come your way. What's going to
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happen next?
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20-year-old Anthony Neboa, who's autistic, happens to get on the
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wrong bus.
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He's on his way home.
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He was working packaging supplies to be sent to Puerto
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Rico to help with hurricane relief. He was an aspiring
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musician and a rapper. He was, you know, one of
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several children who had a close relationship with his siblings
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and with his parents. And he was someone who was
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stolen from our community, like Monica, like Benjamin, far too young.
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His murder occurs.
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Why?
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Because he gets on the wrong bus, wrong place at
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the wrong time.
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Anthony is killed barely 200 yards from Benjamin Mitchell and
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00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:23.069
less than half a mile from Monica Hoffa.
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I'm sure that when they examined the shell casings, they
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00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:33.779
realized that, you know, this is the same shooter. And
249
00:17:33.819 --> 00:17:37.740
then when Anthony was killed, they knew they had a
250
00:17:38.299 --> 00:17:41.039
serial killer on their hands, someone who was, you know,
251
00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:45.369
committing all these murders in Seminole Heights. I think that
252
00:17:45.470 --> 00:17:52.450
the entire... area was just under the stranglehold of these
murders,
253
00:17:52.490 --> 00:18:02.410
these killings. After Monica's memorial, that's when the rumors were like, oh,
254
00:18:02.490 --> 00:18:04.990
we think there might be a serial killer, and I
255
00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:08.589
think there might have even been some press coverage about that.
256
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:19.220
It was really intense in that neighborhood. You could feel
257
00:18:19.660 --> 00:18:23.119
just the tension. Nobody was on the street. We went
258
00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:27.380
to visit these memorials that they had put on the
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00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:31.240
side of this building. People would have all their lights on.
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00:18:31.259 --> 00:18:35.170
The city would make sure that all the street lights
261
00:18:35.289 --> 00:18:37.670
were up. I mean, it was very tense.
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00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:42.029
There was a palpable sense of fear in the community.
263
00:18:42.730 --> 00:18:46.470
And our mayor at the time famously said, you know,
264
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bring me his head on a platter.
265
00:18:48.309 --> 00:18:51.210
This guy is not going to win. He's not taking
266
00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:54.250
over this neighborhood. He's not taking over these streets. You
267
00:18:54.289 --> 00:18:58.890
guys go hunt him down and bring his head to me.
268
00:18:59.589 --> 00:19:01.089
All right, let's go get it done.
269
00:19:01.349 --> 00:19:04.089
That's not the most diplomatic thing a mayor could say,
270
00:19:04.609 --> 00:19:08.119
but it captured the frustration and anger of the community.
271
00:19:13.609 --> 00:19:21.039
The reward for information on the killer is increased to $ 25, 000.
272
00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:21.700
Police release new CCTV clips of a man walking away
273
00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:25.680
from the scene of Benjamin's murder, hoping someone recognizes the
274
00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.779
way the suspect appears to flip a phone in their hand.
275
00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:32.650
Without any promising leads, without any evidence to help us
276
00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:36.130
find that one person who's committing these crimes, there's a
277
00:19:36.170 --> 00:19:38.490
real concern that this is going to continue.
278
00:19:40.619 --> 00:19:42.980
If you're in that community, you are doing whatever you
279
00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:46.619
can to try to see any pattern, anything that's going
280
00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:49.099
to help you feel safer. So, for example, you have
281
00:19:49.140 --> 00:19:51.160
people who kind of go, okay, the first victim was
282
00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:54.279
at a bus stop. The second victim was maybe missed
283
00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:56.220
the bus, so I'm not going to take the bus,
284
00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:58.599
or I'm not going to walk down this particular street.
285
00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.859
People were just frantically trying to figure out, how can
286
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:03.609
I be safer?
287
00:20:05.710 --> 00:20:08.559
Have your lights on
because this guy had on a
288
00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:12.539
black hoodie, he had on, you know, black clothes. No
289
00:20:12.619 --> 00:20:15.339
one would catch the bus, especially when the third got hit.
290
00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:22.680
At this time, Donaldson was working at a McDonald's, like
291
00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:24.460
a lot of young people do to try to make
292
00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.750
ends meet. But for someone who had told his friends
293
00:20:27.789 --> 00:20:29.910
that he was going to be a basketball star in college,
294
00:20:30.349 --> 00:20:32.910
for someone who had ambitions of being a sports agent,
295
00:20:33.670 --> 00:20:36.759
He must have felt like he had hit rock bottom
296
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.599
with his career and his path in life.
297
00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:43.799
It's almost like a narcissistic injury that these bad things
298
00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:46.559
have happened. And I think that at this point, that
299
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.680
Donaldson is really angry about all the things that have
300
00:20:49.700 --> 00:20:52.390
happened to him. I do think there was a part
301
00:20:52.450 --> 00:20:55.450
of him that said, I am special. I'm going to
302
00:20:55.490 --> 00:20:58.109
be special in some way. You are going to pay
303
00:20:58.150 --> 00:21:00.910
attention to me. You are going to notice. Look what
304
00:21:00.970 --> 00:21:04.539
I'm doing. I can go out and I can... give
305
00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:06.819
somebody the gift of life or the gift of death
306
00:21:06.859 --> 00:21:13.690
at any moment, and I'm controlling an entire community. It's
307
00:21:13.710 --> 00:21:20.029
pretty clear that Howell Donaldson had absolutely no compassion for
308
00:21:20.150 --> 00:21:21.549
the people he was killing. As a matter of fact,
309
00:21:21.630 --> 00:21:26.210
it almost appears like he's out hunting for prey. And
310
00:21:26.230 --> 00:21:29.410
that is really the ultimate, I think, in dehumanizing somebody,
311
00:21:29.910 --> 00:21:32.779
to go out and just kill a random person who
312
00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:35.789
you don't know who's never done anything to you, who
313
00:21:35.809 --> 00:21:38.450
you have no attraction to, you have no anger toward.
314
00:21:38.910 --> 00:21:41.049
It really is the ultimate in dehumanization.
315
00:21:45.930 --> 00:21:49.529
With three murders in 10 days, law enforcement had some
316
00:21:49.569 --> 00:21:52.470
information to work with and are doing their best to
317
00:21:52.490 --> 00:21:54.990
develop suspects, doing their best to work with the community.
318
00:21:55.470 --> 00:21:57.900
But then there are no real leads going on for
319
00:21:57.940 --> 00:22:02.680
a while. Donaldson did a really good job of hiding
320
00:22:02.819 --> 00:22:07.119
after Anthony's murder and not putting himself in a position
321
00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:08.240
where he could get caught.
322
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:11.960
And the media moves on like they do
because there's
323
00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:15.140
always things to talk about. And so at this point,
324
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:20.549
things are slowly starting to creep back to normal. And
325
00:22:20.630 --> 00:22:25.910
then on November the 14th, another murder happens.
326
00:22:42.740 --> 00:22:47.220
So it's been five weeks since Benjamin Mitchell was killed.
327
00:22:48.900 --> 00:22:52.579
One morning, I got up and I heard what happened again.
328
00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:59.200
This time, the victim is Ronald Felton, James' older brother
329
00:22:59.619 --> 00:23:00.539
and twin to Reggie.
330
00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:03.839
One thing about Ronald, well, they always say that when
331
00:23:03.859 --> 00:23:06.200
we was born that we all look alike. We was
332
00:23:06.259 --> 00:23:10.650
like triplets. We went to high school together, elementary school,
333
00:23:10.990 --> 00:23:14.049
junior high school together, and we was always together. And
334
00:23:14.109 --> 00:23:18.329
Reggie was always the one that was so stubborn. So
335
00:23:18.390 --> 00:23:21.609
me and Ronald was more closer than his twin brother.
336
00:23:23.829 --> 00:23:26.289
We never was apart, but he always look out for
337
00:23:26.309 --> 00:23:27.890
the others than himself.
338
00:23:33.299 --> 00:23:36.960
Ronald was a construction worker. He'd spent 25 years on
339
00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:39.869
the job, and this was someone who was giving back
340
00:23:39.910 --> 00:23:42.970
to the community by working at a food bank. He
341
00:23:43.009 --> 00:23:45.549
was by himself at a time when there weren't a
342
00:23:45.569 --> 00:23:48.869
lot of people out. He was crossing a relatively busy
343
00:23:48.930 --> 00:23:51.259
street early in the morning at about 5 a.m. when
344
00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:53.799
there weren't a lot of people around, and that's when
345
00:23:53.819 --> 00:23:54.279
he was killed.
346
00:24:06.650 --> 00:24:08.950
Why is the bus so full and everybody talking about
347
00:24:08.970 --> 00:24:11.529
the same thing? And I just looked around and said,
348
00:24:11.549 --> 00:24:13.410
what's going on? It's another killer.
349
00:24:13.849 --> 00:24:14.109
What?
350
00:24:15.589 --> 00:24:17.130
So I went up to the bus robber.
351
00:24:17.069 --> 00:24:17.829
And he knew.
352
00:24:18.430 --> 00:24:21.650
And it was saying that it was Ronald Felton. I said,
353
00:24:21.690 --> 00:24:25.329
that's my brother. He said, what? He just took me
354
00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:27.609
down to Hillsboro and there it was. I don't know
355
00:24:27.650 --> 00:24:29.940
if he stopped, but he got me there safely. And
356
00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:33.619
that's where they had everything was blocked. So when I
357
00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:35.940
went across the street, some of my family was there.
358
00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:39.140
All of a sudden, we just braced each other. They said,
359
00:24:39.509 --> 00:24:43.369
it's him. I said, are you serious? Another murder happened
360
00:24:43.430 --> 00:24:49.349
in Seminole Heights. And it was Ronald Felton. When he
361
00:24:49.390 --> 00:24:53.210
was walking, that's when he heard someone behind. That's when
362
00:24:53.230 --> 00:24:57.240
he got shot. And he fell backwards. And when he
363
00:24:57.259 --> 00:25:01.630
fell backwards, he went up to him over him to
364
00:25:01.670 --> 00:25:06.349
shoot him again. Who would do this to a person?
365
00:25:06.789 --> 00:25:10.569
The tragic irony of Ronald's death was that the morning
366
00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:13.029
that he was killed, he was actually going to a
367
00:25:13.089 --> 00:25:16.049
food bank to volunteer like he did regularly. So you
368
00:25:16.069 --> 00:25:20.470
have someone who, as a construction worker, has dedicated part
369
00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:23.250
of his life to giving back to the community at
370
00:25:23.289 --> 00:25:26.349
the moment when someone who has decided to rob this
371
00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:29.450
community of four innocent lives kills him in cold blood.
372
00:25:30.990 --> 00:25:32.710
They couldn't even have us to come and see the
373
00:25:32.750 --> 00:25:35.250
body because the way they said where he got shot at.
374
00:25:36.069 --> 00:25:39.130
They said, no, we think we better not, don't see him.
375
00:25:39.430 --> 00:25:42.430
And they have them all cover up. I felt like this,
376
00:25:43.450 --> 00:25:46.490
this is the end of it. After they did, that's
377
00:25:46.509 --> 00:25:47.210
the way I felt.
378
00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:01.579
This had become a story nationally and internationally because we
379
00:26:01.619 --> 00:26:03.920
had a serial or a spree killer in our midst
380
00:26:03.980 --> 00:26:04.480
in Tampa.
381
00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:10.869
SWAT teams start patrolling the area. The community feels terrorized again.
382
00:26:11.109 --> 00:26:13.599
When you look at the type of killing that occurred
383
00:26:13.619 --> 00:26:16.660
with this case, it is random. But then we have
384
00:26:16.700 --> 00:26:21.640
to look at what is random. Random could be easily accessible.
385
00:26:22.349 --> 00:26:25.849
Someone walking down the street, someone getting off a public bus.
386
00:26:26.349 --> 00:26:29.470
If I have an anger about me, if I have
387
00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:33.579
a weapon available to me, I'm looking for easy targets.
388
00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:38.420
Seems random, but perhaps the key issue is access.
389
00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:42.700
This time there's a witness. The police announced they are
390
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.579
looking for a thin black male dressed in all black
391
00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:47.079
with a black baseball cap.
392
00:26:47.619 --> 00:26:52.059
Imagine being the police of Seminole Heights, Florida. What appears
393
00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:55.940
to be random killings are taking place in your jurisdiction.
394
00:26:56.579 --> 00:26:59.900
People are fearful. There seems to be no pattern.
395
00:27:02.980 --> 00:27:05.859
The reward for the capture of the killer is raised
396
00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:10.240
to $ 110, 000. But in the days following Ronald's murder, the
397
00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:13.819
police make no arrests. The killer is evading them again.
398
00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:18.809
Even after four murders... In all the diligent work that
399
00:27:18.829 --> 00:27:21.099
law enforcement was doing and all the help we had
400
00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:23.900
from the community, it was really hard to develop a
401
00:27:23.980 --> 00:27:27.660
solid lead into the suspect. But just like Donaldson had
402
00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:31.150
this misperception of where he was in life that may
403
00:27:31.170 --> 00:27:34.269
have caused him to commit these crimes, he probably felt
404
00:27:34.309 --> 00:27:37.789
like things were closing in on him. And he panicked
405
00:27:37.829 --> 00:27:38.289
a little bit.
406
00:27:39.369 --> 00:27:41.119
He's 24 years old, and one of the things we
407
00:27:41.130 --> 00:27:44.759
know is that You know, our brains continue to develop
408
00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:47.079
until we're at least 25. And so I think there's
409
00:27:47.099 --> 00:27:50.180
an immaturity there as well. You know, it's difficult when
410
00:27:50.220 --> 00:27:52.700
you're in your early 20s or early to mid 20s
411
00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:56.849
to think about the fact that a year from now,
412
00:27:56.900 --> 00:27:59.750
things could be completely different. Two years from now, things
413
00:27:59.769 --> 00:28:02.609
could be different. It's much more likely to think how
414
00:28:02.690 --> 00:28:06.190
things are right now is how they are always going
415
00:28:06.250 --> 00:28:10.210
to be. And I think for Donaldson, that was intolerable.
416
00:28:11.349 --> 00:28:13.930
Donaldson had told people that he was looking to leave
417
00:28:13.990 --> 00:28:18.680
the state, that he was looking to flee. In our perception,
418
00:28:19.059 --> 00:28:21.799
he probably felt like the walls were closing in on
419
00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:23.420
him and he was going to get caught, so he
420
00:28:23.460 --> 00:28:25.720
was trying to escape from Tampa before it happened.
421
00:28:26.099 --> 00:28:29.900
You know, he was trying to get a ticket to
422
00:28:29.940 --> 00:28:32.869
go back to New York. He was trying to leave Tampa.
423
00:28:39.450 --> 00:28:42.730
He's working at McDonald's. He tells his manager that he's
424
00:28:42.750 --> 00:28:45.650
going to quit. He turns in his uniform. He says
425
00:28:45.670 --> 00:28:48.359
he needs to run to go buy a ticket to
426
00:28:48.390 --> 00:28:52.700
leave town, and he's gonna come back. Shockingly, he handed
427
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.000
the manager a bag and said, hold on to this
428
00:28:56.059 --> 00:28:57.930
for me and don't look into it.
429
00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:01.700
I would imagine most people, if somebody gave them a
430
00:29:01.740 --> 00:29:05.000
bag with something in it, a plastic bag, you would
431
00:29:05.019 --> 00:29:08.480
be concerned about what this is. Their relationship was not
432
00:29:09.019 --> 00:29:13.190
that close. He's given this to his manager, who, of course,
433
00:29:13.750 --> 00:29:14.529
looks in the bag.
434
00:29:16.630 --> 00:29:19.210
And that was the stroke of luck that we needed,
435
00:29:19.609 --> 00:29:23.380
combined with law enforcement's diligence efforts to make the huge
436
00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:24.140
break in the case.
437
00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:28.059
The bag contains a weapon, a gun.
438
00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:32.680
Well, the McDonald's manager immediately knew that there was a problem.
439
00:29:33.109 --> 00:29:36.529
She found a police officer in the parking lot at McDonald's.
440
00:29:36.910 --> 00:29:39.910
And by the time Donaldson returned to the McDonald's, you
441
00:29:39.950 --> 00:29:42.869
had a whole group of law enforcement officers waiting to
442
00:29:42.910 --> 00:29:43.809
arrest him immediately.
443
00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:55.460
But you're responsible for this?
444
00:29:55.539 --> 00:29:55.599
No.
445
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:58.819
Because it's the gun, okay?
446
00:29:59.250 --> 00:30:00.069
You murdered those people.
447
00:30:00.430 --> 00:30:01.269
Your phone would put.
448
00:30:01.130 --> 00:30:03.450
You right there at specific times.
449
00:30:04.130 --> 00:30:06.269
We know it's you. Can you please tell us why?
450
00:30:06.289 --> 00:30:07.490
I don't know.
451
00:30:07.589 --> 00:30:07.890
Why?
452
00:30:07.910 --> 00:30:11.200
I just don't know anything else to say.
453
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:13.480
I just want to, I guess, talk to my attorney
454
00:30:13.539 --> 00:30:15.240
and talk to her who I need to talk to.
455
00:30:16.059 --> 00:30:20.740
Shortly after Mr. Felton's death, my brother said there's a
456
00:30:20.799 --> 00:30:25.779
report on TV that they might have the guy at
457
00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:30.329
a McDonald's. So I started watching TV Everything I could
458
00:30:30.349 --> 00:30:34.920
watch online and watching the news. I think all the
459
00:30:34.980 --> 00:30:37.359
press was there and they came out and they said
460
00:30:37.380 --> 00:30:41.500
they've arrested someone. They believe in connection of the murders.
461
00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:45.220
That's kind of when I saw, you know, the face
462
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:45.779
of evil.
463
00:30:52.460 --> 00:30:57.180
When Donaldson was arrested, when Donaldson was charged by my office,
464
00:30:57.779 --> 00:31:00.440
You could feel the sense of relief in the community.
465
00:31:06.589 --> 00:31:12.329
Today is a good day. Today, the good guys won. Today,
466
00:31:12.450 --> 00:31:13.650
Seminole Heights can sleep.
467
00:31:19.569 --> 00:31:21.720
The mayor, he talked to me when we had to say,
468
00:31:21.740 --> 00:31:24.859
he said, at night while y'all was asleep, I was
469
00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:26.960
with them trying to capture
him.
470
00:31:32.690 --> 00:31:37.269
I mean, who walks around with a murder weapon in
471
00:31:37.309 --> 00:31:42.190
a sandwich bag in McDonald's and then asks his boss
472
00:31:42.269 --> 00:31:45.589
to hold this while I go try to get money
473
00:31:45.650 --> 00:31:49.630
to get a ticket to get out of town? I mean,
474
00:31:51.819 --> 00:31:58.200
for all of his opportunities, he was just a dumb kid.
475
00:32:00.430 --> 00:32:03.990
It's hard to explain how someone who had been relatively
476
00:32:04.029 --> 00:32:07.549
careful for a month in murdering four people hands the
477
00:32:07.589 --> 00:32:11.190
murder weapon to his manager at McDonald's and then walks away.
478
00:32:12.109 --> 00:32:18.809
I have often said that 99.99% of serial killers do
479
00:32:18.869 --> 00:32:23.900
not want to get caught. And if they make stupid mistakes,
480
00:32:24.619 --> 00:32:28.559
it's because they're so narcissistic or so grandiose that they've
481
00:32:28.599 --> 00:32:32.660
convinced themselves that I can't get caught. I'm the smartest
482
00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:37.240
person around here. Is it possible that that is completely
483
00:32:37.240 --> 00:32:41.240
100% what happened with Howell Donaldson?
484
00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:41.980
Yes, it is.
485
00:32:42.789 --> 00:32:45.009
I have to say this is one of those few
486
00:32:45.069 --> 00:32:49.829
situations when I have to wonder if on some level
487
00:32:50.970 --> 00:32:54.230
Howell Donaldson at the very least was wanting to stop
488
00:32:54.289 --> 00:32:56.329
doing what he was doing. It's so hard for me
489
00:32:56.369 --> 00:32:59.089
to believe it was just stupidity.
490
00:33:00.049 --> 00:33:00.769
That led to that.
491
00:33:02.569 --> 00:33:06.170
With Howell Donaldson arrested, the residents of Seminole Heights feel
492
00:33:06.210 --> 00:33:10.430
safe for the first time in 51 days. Investigators quickly
493
00:33:10.490 --> 00:33:11.769
link him to the murder spree.
494
00:33:13.009 --> 00:33:17.359
He then is questioned, his car is searched, and they
495
00:33:17.450 --> 00:33:23.960
find bloodstained clothing. So the bloodstained clothing matches surveillance footage
496
00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:25.140
of the killer.
497
00:33:27.730 --> 00:33:30.450
The gun that he handed to his McDonald's manager was
498
00:33:30.509 --> 00:33:36.160
the gun that was involved in all four murders. That
499
00:33:36.220 --> 00:33:39.400
was ultimately the strongest piece of evidence in tying Donaldson
500
00:33:39.420 --> 00:33:40.119
to these crimes.
501
00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:47.509
I got to talk to Chief Dugan. I met Mayor Buckhorn.
502
00:33:47.890 --> 00:33:50.150
He's the one that said, bring me his head. There's
503
00:33:50.190 --> 00:33:53.970
t-shirts made, bring me his head. Once I had learned
504
00:33:54.069 --> 00:33:56.599
all the different things, and I had read all the
505
00:33:56.680 --> 00:33:59.500
things that they were possibly using to track and to
506
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:04.480
find this guy, I was relieved, knowing now that he
507
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:06.660
was behind bars.
508
00:34:19.869 --> 00:34:23.250
So as Case moves forward, he enters a plea of
509
00:34:23.469 --> 00:34:24.369
not guilty.
510
00:34:26.630 --> 00:34:30.949
I think one of the really problematic things about Donaldson
511
00:34:30.969 --> 00:34:32.550
was how he coped with things. And one of the
512
00:34:32.590 --> 00:34:36.489
things that you see or we see emerging is this
513
00:34:36.550 --> 00:34:40.369
lack of responsibility. It's not my fault. It's other people's fault.
514
00:34:40.590 --> 00:34:43.829
It's circumstances fault. It's anybody but my own fault.
515
00:34:53.659 --> 00:34:57.510
There was a meeting with the state's attorney We all
516
00:34:57.590 --> 00:35:01.010
made the decision that we wanted him to have the
517
00:35:01.050 --> 00:35:04.690
death penalty. We wanted death.
518
00:35:16.789 --> 00:35:20.530
Investigators are preparing for the August 2020 murder trial of
519
00:35:20.590 --> 00:35:24.340
Howell Donaldson III. The victim's families are hoping he's found
520
00:35:24.360 --> 00:35:26.039
guilty and sentenced to death.
521
00:35:26.829 --> 00:35:29.250
We were able to build a strong case against Donaldson
522
00:35:29.309 --> 00:35:34.679
really on three different pillars. One was on his general description,
523
00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:38.079
one was on his whereabouts and location, and the third
524
00:35:38.119 --> 00:35:41.800
was on the gun and the ballistic evidence. But you
525
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:43.900
know when you walk into court, you still have to
526
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:47.630
persuade a jury unanimously, beyond and to the exclusion of
527
00:35:47.789 --> 00:35:50.650
any reasonable doubt, that he's the one who committed these crimes.
528
00:35:56.320 --> 00:35:58.860
So we find after each and every one of these
529
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:05.250
activities that he goes home, plays video games, and watches porn.
530
00:36:06.889 --> 00:36:09.710
That's a pattern you see in spree and serial killers
531
00:36:10.190 --> 00:36:14.929
where they're able to commit these heinous, horrific, barbaric acts
532
00:36:15.369 --> 00:36:19.090
and then go back to their normal life every day.
533
00:36:19.730 --> 00:36:22.110
And it turns out that's exactly what Donaldson was doing.
534
00:36:22.769 --> 00:36:25.489
But think about the type of person, think about the
535
00:36:25.550 --> 00:36:29.530
type of mentality you have to have. It's really hard
536
00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:45.179
to wrap your head around. There's no such thing as
537
00:36:45.219 --> 00:36:47.480
a sure thing when you're talking about taking a case
538
00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:50.940
to trial. And the defense was doing as best they
539
00:36:50.980 --> 00:36:53.400
could to poke holes in our theory of the case,
540
00:36:53.739 --> 00:36:55.880
poke holes in the description of this young man who
541
00:36:55.900 --> 00:36:59.889
was seen on video, poke holes in the location we
542
00:36:59.929 --> 00:37:02.170
had for him as he was going from where he
543
00:37:02.210 --> 00:37:05.969
was staying and living to the murder scenes, poke holes
544
00:37:06.130 --> 00:37:09.840
in the ballistic and forensic evidence we had connecting him
545
00:37:10.019 --> 00:37:11.900
and the gun to these murders.
546
00:37:20.730 --> 00:37:24.210
Donaldson's defense team are successful in their request for each
547
00:37:24.289 --> 00:37:25.690
murder to be tried separately.
548
00:37:26.349 --> 00:37:30.389
This ends up prolonging the difficulty for the victims' families.
549
00:37:30.849 --> 00:37:33.630
It makes the case take years and years before they
550
00:37:33.650 --> 00:37:36.670
can get a sense of justice, and it really ends
551
00:37:36.750 --> 00:37:40.139
up hurting them twice because they have to relive these
552
00:37:40.239 --> 00:37:43.500
tragedies throughout the court case as it continues for years.
553
00:37:44.739 --> 00:37:50.619
When it comes to red tape and prolonging the inevitable...
554
00:37:50.570 --> 00:37:54.690
We should look for mercy for the victims. There needs
555
00:37:54.730 --> 00:38:01.420
to be some kind of preponderance of the evidence that says, listen,
556
00:38:02.679 --> 00:38:06.239
no matter what, you are tied to all of these
557
00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:10.579
murders with this evidence. And we cannot have all of
558
00:38:10.659 --> 00:38:18.110
these families suffer because you have the right to a
559
00:38:18.190 --> 00:38:23.280
not-so-speedy trial. I think what happened to me, the Feltons,
560
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:28.699
the Nyboas, Benjamin's family, was nothing short of torture. Then
561
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:33.130
the second year went by. Then the third year. Then
562
00:38:33.170 --> 00:38:36.650
the fourth year. Then the fifth year. And we're almost
563
00:38:36.730 --> 00:38:40.130
into the sixth year. And just thank God that he
564
00:38:40.170 --> 00:38:41.650
decided he had had enough.
565
00:38:45.829 --> 00:38:49.320
Donaldson changes his plea to guilty on all counts. in
566
00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:51.800
a deal that will see him avoid the death penalty.
567
00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:56.920
Sitting in jail for almost six years, I think he
568
00:38:56.960 --> 00:39:00.550
just wanted to do enough to get out of being
569
00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:05.809
executed so that he could just move on. And by
570
00:39:05.889 --> 00:39:09.969
doing that, I think he got some kind of gratification also.
571
00:39:10.469 --> 00:39:19.659
He knew he wasn't going to die. And you took
572
00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:21.679
my daughter's life.
573
00:39:22.679 --> 00:39:23.800
I'll never understand.
574
00:39:24.710 --> 00:39:27.329
I'll never understand why it took so long to get
575
00:39:27.369 --> 00:39:33.590
to this point. It was a total release. All the anger,
576
00:39:34.730 --> 00:39:38.949
all the pent-up
frustrations I had with the court system,
577
00:39:39.570 --> 00:39:45.400
it was a release. It was a dedication, kind of,
578
00:39:45.480 --> 00:39:46.139
to my daughter.
579
00:39:54.820 --> 00:40:00.300
He is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the
580
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:02.260
possibility of parole.
581
00:40:06.780 --> 00:40:11.590
I struggled with forgiveness. I really did. And I know
582
00:40:11.650 --> 00:40:15.769
now forgiveness for me is kind of letting go and
583
00:40:16.730 --> 00:40:20.510
letting God shepherd me through the things that I can't
584
00:40:20.550 --> 00:40:21.710
shepherd myself through.
585
00:40:22.949 --> 00:40:26.309
I said, this guy really had a good life, but
586
00:40:26.369 --> 00:40:29.079
what tricked him to do something like that? He went
587
00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:34.179
to college, basketball. He wants to better himself. And I just,
588
00:40:34.280 --> 00:40:37.179
at that moment, just looked at him and I couldn't
589
00:40:37.219 --> 00:40:40.360
shed a tear for him. I just couldn't do it.
590
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:45.079
I just like, I couldn't do that. He had a
591
00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:48.579
successful life. He had something going on for himself, for
592
00:40:48.619 --> 00:40:52.110
him to really do that. I mean, come on.
593
00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:57.219
This case really is about a young man who did
594
00:40:57.260 --> 00:41:00.860
not live up to his perhaps unrealistic expectations for himself
595
00:41:01.079 --> 00:41:03.659
and his accomplishments. And instead of finding a way to
596
00:41:03.699 --> 00:41:07.079
deal with that directly, took it out on the world
597
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:07.559
around him.
598
00:41:08.260 --> 00:41:10.840
He grew up in church. He's got a tattoo of
599
00:41:10.900 --> 00:41:15.239
Christ on his arm. He shouldn't be a serial killer.
600
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:21.260
I'm at peace knowing now that when he went into prison,
601
00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:23.820
he thought he was somebody. but there's a lot of
602
00:41:23.860 --> 00:41:27.380
people there that think he's a nobody. I'm sure he
603
00:41:27.460 --> 00:41:31.099
is suffering now like we have been suffering.
604
00:41:33.590 --> 00:41:37.969
We have four victims, Benjamin, Anthony, Monica, Ronald, who we
605
00:41:37.989 --> 00:41:40.349
can talk about as a college student and as a
606
00:41:40.389 --> 00:41:44.789
construction worker, but that will never capture who these people are.
607
00:41:45.510 --> 00:41:48.659
I sat with their families and heard the stories and
608
00:41:48.719 --> 00:41:51.719
saw the pictures and laughed and cried with them as
609
00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:56.650
we remembered the loved ones lost. Nothing will ever justify,
610
00:41:56.710 --> 00:42:00.550
nothing will ever explain these four innocent lives that were
611
00:42:00.590 --> 00:42:01.690
ripped from our community.
612
00:42:02.719 --> 00:42:06.679
And Ronald left this legacy about love. Do what you
613
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:09.639
can for people. If you want to leave here and
614
00:42:09.659 --> 00:42:12.280
be with God, love the people. Do what you can.
615
00:42:13.559 --> 00:42:16.550
I'll never stop loving my daughter. She was just a
616
00:42:16.650 --> 00:42:19.130
great child who had a great sense of humor and
617
00:42:19.170 --> 00:42:25.289
a whole future ahead of her. She was really, she
618
00:42:25.329 --> 00:42:27.489
was a light in the darkness.