On Florida's death row for crimes that 'shocked the conscience of Clay County,' inmate dies by suicide
A 41-year-old sexual predator who killed a Middleburg woman in 2014, then abducted and raped her 10-year-old daughter, committed suicide in his cell on death row, Florida corrections officials confirmed.
Donald Hugh Davidson Jr., sentenced to execution in 35-year-old Roseann Kasama Welsh's murder, was found dead on Monday at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, according to a Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson.
The Medical Examiner's Office in Gainesville told The Florida Times-Union it was determined that Davidson used a bedsheet to hang himself.
At the time of his sentencing in 2019, State Attorney Melissa Nelson said the mother's homicide and daughter's rape "shocked the conscience of Clay County."
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Who was Donald Davidson
Davidson was a registered sexual predator who had only been free from incarceration for 72 days before the heinous attack and had known Welsh's husband since childhood, the Clay County Sheriff's Office said.
He had been convicted in 2010 on two counts of lewd molestation and an aggravated battery, according to prison records.
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On Dec. 1, 2014, Davidson walked into Welsh’s home on Mayflower Street and tried to rape the 35-year-old woman, but she broke away when she heard a school bus arrive. Davidson followed Welsh into a bathroom and strangled her with a shoelace, then stabbed her in the throat with a buck knife, the Sheriff's Office said.
Davidson then sexually assaulted the woman's daughter before forcing her into the family’s minivan and driving away. He sexually assaulted the girl again in the van before letting her out near the home, according to investigators. His probation ankle monitor was found cut off at the scene.
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Clay County deputies spotted Welsh’s daughter running down a dirt road toward her home, learning from her that she was in the house when her mother was killed. Davidson was arrested several hours later after deputies spotted him on Blanding Boulevard in the family's stolen minivan.
In late May 2019, Davidson waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted sexual battery of a victim older than 12 with force, plus four counts of sexual battery of a victim younger than 12, lewd and lascivious molestation, kidnapping and grand theft, according to the State Attorney's Office.
Suicides in Florida prisons
State Department of Corrections statistics report 539 inmate deaths in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, 474 of them from natural causes. Another 15 were accidental, with 13 killed by another inmate, 13 more listed as suicides and 24 still under investigation.
From 2016 to 2021 the state prison system had 88 suicides among its total 2,026 deaths.
At Union Correctional, state statistics show 73 inmate deaths since June 8, 2015. Six of those are listed as suicides. The final 18 deaths from Dec. 29, 2020, until the latest on Jan. 25 remain under investigation, department statistics show.
dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida sex predator Donald Davidson commits suicide on death row
