Florida serial killings suspect watched porn after three slayings, police records reveal

This undated file photo provided by the Tampa Police Department, Fla., shows Howell Donaldson. (Tampa Police Department via AP, File)

The man accused of going on a killing spree terrorizing a Florida neighborhood visited porn websites on his cellphone after three of the four killings, according to records released Friday in the case.

Howell Donaldson’s iPhone data revealed a “significant amount of internet activity” close to the deaths in fall 2017, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Police noted 269 “internet activities” between Oct. 5 and Nov. 4 of last year. The website’s name was redacted, per Donaldson’s attorneys’ request.

A Tampa police sergeant said the site was a place where customers could view others in sexually themed situations and interact with certain models privately, according to a warrant.

“In summary, Howell Donaldson showed a pattern of visiting this adult-themed website after committing three homicides,” the warrant said.

Police records also showed that Donaldson’s changing behavior troubled his ex-girlfriend Nicole Minnis, who had a relationship with him up until 2013.

Minnis told investigators that Donaldson showed up unexpectedly in Tampa in August 2017 and by Nov. 11 of that year he asked her for a place to stay. Donaldson stayed with Minnis and her both and were shocked when he showed up at their house with items in trash bags and sporting a McDonald’s uniform, according to police. Minnus said he kept telling her he was trying to get back on his feet.

Donaldson refused to talk to his friends and family and told Minnus he had been cut off from everyone close to him, according to FOX13 Tampa Bay.

“I can't see your parents kicking you out. Did they kick you out? What happened?” Minnus said, according to police, adding that she said he told her that he couldn’t be “in that environment.”

Donaldson was arrested Nov. 28 after police said he handed a bag containing a handgun to a co-worker at McDonald’s near the neighborhood where four people had been shot.

The details about Donaldson were part of 1,500 pages of investigative reports and audio recordings that were released in the case. The records also described behavioral changes that troubled Donaldson's on-again, off-again girlfriend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.