Man gets 3 years in burglary

The Sheriff's Office says the January 2005 incident was over a drug dispute.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Ronald Albert Donovan, 24, of Cocoa, was sentenced to three years in prison on a reduced charge of aggravated battery with a firearm.

DADE CITY - A Brevard County man charged in a 2005 armed burglary in Meadow Pointe pleaded guilty Wednesday and was sent to prison.

Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa sentenced Ronald Albert Donovan, 24, of Cocoa, to three years in prison on a reduced charge of aggravated battery with a firearm.

Prosecutors said Donovan and his friend, Ralph Eugene Governor of Merritt Island, showed up at the Ox-Eye Court home of William Chavis, a high school acquaintance, around midnight on Jan. 23, 2005.

They asked him to go out. Chavis, who was under a curfew for felony probation, declined and handed them a phone to call for a ride.

During Governor's trial in May, Chavis testified that he waited inside, and when he got up to peer through his front door, the two were walking up with guns.

Chavis said he got a shotgun from his bedroom and shot Donovan in the back with bird shot, but not before Donovan allegedly fired a bullet into Chavis' chest.

The Sheriff's Office said the whole incident was a dispute over drugs.

A jury found Governor not guilty during his trial in May. Chavis' testimony conflicted with what he originally told police - that he didn't know the men who attacked him. And jurors never heard a statement Governor made to police, admitting he was there with a gun.

But Donovan might have had less of a shot at freedom, his lawyer said, because he was shot during the incident.

"That was some indication of his being there," attorney Paul Bross said.

As charged, Donovan faced up to life in prison if he lost at trial.

"It's a pretty good deal," Bross said of the plea agreement.

Donovan spent about nine months in jail in Pasco and Brevard counties, awaiting trial. He will get credit for that time and serve three years probation after his prison sentence ends.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-6521 or moorhead@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 21:52:19]