Man ran over fiancée lying in road, killing her, Florida cops say. Now he’s sentenced
A man hit the gas on a minivan and fatally ran over his fiancée lying in the road during a domestic dispute, Florida authorities said.
Donald Whitaker, 53, has now been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the 2022 incident, the State Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit announced March 10.
Traffic was brought to a stop the evening of Nov. 28, 2022, when drivers noticed a crying 36-year-old woman lying on her side on a Naples road, Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies wrote in an arrest affidavit.
One witness said a minivan that was stopped near the woman appeared to be “stalking” her, the report says. The witness asked the woman if she could help, but the woman said no, according to deputies.
The witness started calling 911 and another driver also came to a stop on the scene, then the minivan accelerated, “shooting rocks out from the tires” and ran over the woman with the front and back tires, deputies said.
The other witness confirmed the minivan driver ran over the woman in the road, according to the report.
The first witness said the minivan driver, later identified as Whitaker, got out of the vehicle and tried to move the woman into the car, but the witness told him to stop moving her because she was badly injured, deputies wrote.
She said he then tried to perform CPR, and first responders found Whitaker holding his fiancée “who was covered in blood,” according to the report.
The 36-year-old woman died at a hospital, but authorities didn’t release her name.
When deputies interviewed Whitaker, he tried to pin the woman’s death on the other drivers at the scene, but the underside of the minivan showed he had hit the woman with that vehicle, prosecutors said.
Detectives said the couple had a “history of domestic violence.”
A jury found Whitaker guilty of murder in October, and a judge sentenced him March 10, according to prosecutors.
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Man ran over fiancée lying in road, killing her, Florida cops say. Now he’s sentenced."