Latest Headlines
- Severe Storms Expected For Saturday
- Santa Rosa Couple Charged With Child Abuse
- Man Gets 12 Years In 1998 Killing. Here’s How ECSO Solved The Case Decades Later
- Tate High School Hosts District Special Olympics (With Photo Gallery)
- New Aldi Store, A Converted Winn Dixie, Opens On Nine Mile Road (With Gallery)
- $3.6 Million Interstate Circle Bridge Replacement Over Eight Mile Creek Continues
- Saturday District One Food Distribution Postponed Due To Weather
- Tate Aggies Beat The Escambia Gators 8-2 (With Photo Gallery)
- Woman Gets 20 Years For Fatal 2023 DUI Crash On Davis Highway
- Propane Tanker Truck Overturns Near Jay
Man Gets 12 Years In 1998 Killing. Here’s How ECSO Solved The Case Decades Later
March 14, 2025
An Escambia County man was sentenced to 12 years in state prison on Thursday for a 1998 Winn Dixie parking lot killing that went unsolved for decades.
Donald Holmes II was found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm after first being charged with the murder of Steven Davis. He will receive 352 days of credit for time previously served, and he will be on probation for 12 years after release.
When he was charged last year, Holmes was serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida State prison for a 2012 Escambia County home invasion robbery. He had been set for release in 2032. Both sentences will now run concurrently.
Steven Davis was in his Yellow Cab (pictured below) leaving the parking lot of the Winn Dixie on Navy Boulevard about 4 a.m. on August 26, 1998, when he shot. He got out of his cab, collapsed in the parking lot and died.
Davis’ cab was later recovered near Navy Boulevard with an open driver’s door and rear passenger doors. The driver’s window was shattered.
New forensic technology was used to examine a bloody fingerprint (pictured below) found at the scene, Simons said Tuesday, leading to the identification of Holmes as the suspect.
“We knew the blood was Steven’s blood, but we couldn’t get the detail we needed from this particular fingerprint, but we tried,” Simmons said. “We tried not once, not twice, but three different times…because we weren’t able to get the details needed to form an adequate identification.”
“We tried one more time with some new training, but also new technology,” Sheriff Simmons added. “…That print put us at this individual right here.”
Photos courtesy Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
7 Responses to “Man Gets 12 Years In 1998 Killing. Here’s How ECSO Solved The Case Decades Later”
It appears to me that Donald Holmes II was given a pass on murdering Steven Davis. So much for E.C.S.O.’s hard work.
It’s always these people killing someone
Prime example of a failed court system!! this low life deserves nothing less than to ride the lightning!!
This ridiculous Court System stinks. Time for a big change but it has to come from the people. Let your voice be heard!
Really, he didn’t get anything added to his time in jail he already had.
@JTV
In Florida if you kill someone the sentence (mandatory minimum) is 25 to life with a chance of parole after 25 years. Robbery with a gun is a life sentence with no chance of parole. You figure that one out. A criminal is better off killing someone then leaving them alive.
He got more time for home invasion than killing someone. RIDICULOUS.