Deputies arrest shooting suspect
Investigators continue searching for a second man in connection with the Sunday incident.
By JAMAL THALJI
Published January 27, 2005
WESLEY CHAPEL - One suspect in Sunday's Meadow Pointe shootout is in custody while authorities are still seeking another.
Ronald Albert Donovan, 22, was arrested midday Wednesday on an outstanding warrant by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
Donovan was arrested a day after authorities issued arrest warrants for him and Ralph Eugene Governor, 22, in connection with what authorities said was a drug-related shooting at 29544 Ox-Eye Court.
The shooting left William Chavis, 21, hospitalized. Both suspects face armed burglary charges. Additional charges may follow, authorities said.
Donovan shot Chavis in the upper left torso with an SKS assault rifle, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's affidavit. Chavis is still at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where he was reported in stable condition Monday.
"We've been working with Brevard County closely, and they are assisting us in the apprehension of the two suspects," said Doug Tobin, a spokesman with the Pasco sheriff's office. Tobin wouldn't comment on where authorities think Governor is.
Donovan and Governor are accused of breaking down Chavis' door and shooting Chavis, who returned fire with a shotgun and chased the assailants away, authorities said. Armed burglary carries a life sentence.
The suspects are high school acquaintances of Chavis, the affidavit said, who had spent a few days at the residence in the Pinedale subdivision a month before.
Sarah Summer, who was also in the house and who is listed as an owner, said in the affidavit that she and Chavis were asleep when they heard knocking at the front door. Chavis got out of bed to answer at 12:15 a.m.
They were Donovan and Governor, Chavis told authorities, whom he hadn't heard from since their last visit.
Chavis said they wanted to "hang out," the affidavit said. Chavis said he didn't want to.
The pair said they had been dropped off; they needed to call for a ride, the affidavit said. Chavis told authorities he handed them a cordless phone, told them to leave it at the doorway and said he was going back to bed.
Then Chavis locked the front door.
"(Chavis) felt something was not quite right," he would tell Pasco County sheriff's Detective Lisa Mazza from his hospital bed five hours later.
Moments later, Chavis said he heard someone trying to force open the door, "kicking and banging," the affidavit said.
Chavis said he ran to the bedroom, got his shotgun and ran back to the doorway, the affidavit said. Chavis said when Governor saw him standing with the shotgun, he turned and ran out of the house.
But Donovan was hiding behind a half-wall in the kitchen, Chavis said in the affidavit, and that he didn't see Donovan until he was shot. Chavis said he returned fire. Summer said in the affidavit that she heard four gunshots, then Chavis calling for help. She found him bleeding.
The front door was damaged, Mazza wrote in the affidavit, with a full shoe print just under the doorknob. The detective saw a trail of blood from the hallway to the front door. Four shell casings, three fron a shotgun, were found. Deputies found an SKS assault rifle lying in front of the residence, though they would not say if it was the weapon that shot Chavis. Shotgun pellets were found in the gutter of the residence across the street, and in front of that neighbor's doorway, the affidavit said.
The victim and the suspects have criminal records. Chavis was arrested in 2002 and 2004 and most recently pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and possession of cannabis with intent to sell in Hillsborough County. In May, Tampa police arrested him on a probation violation.
Donovan, of Cocoa, pleaded no contest in May 2002 to charges of resisting an officer and resisting arrest without violence. In March 2003 he pleaded not guilty to violating probation; in October he was arrested on a charge of resisting an officer without violence and in December he was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.
Governor, of Merritt Island, was charged in March 2002 with failing to appear for speeding and driving without a license. In August he was charged with battery and in September he was charged with driving with a suspended license and failing to appear on the battery charge.
Donovan is being held in the Brevard County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, and a Pasco sheriff's detective was sent there Wednesday afternoon to question him.
Researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.
GOT A TIP?Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Ralph Eugene Governor is asked to call Pasco County sheriff's Detective Lisa Mazza toll-free at 1-800-854-2862, ext. 7473.