Death row inmate indicted on first degree murder charge in Charlotte County cold case
CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – A man on death row in Ohio has been formally charged with first degree murder for the 1990 murder of a Charlotte County woman.
A Grand jury has indicted Roland Thomas Davis after DNA evidence connected him to the murder of Sharon Gill.
“I can’t even put into words how grateful that I am my family are that they’ve been able to solve this cold case,” said Krista Gill, the daughter of Sharon.
It’s a day that Krista thought would never come. On March 21, 1990, Krista was 18 years old when she walked into her then home on Rampart Boulevard to find Sharon dead. Detectives said she was stabbed 39 times.
“Back then I thought we’re never going to find out who killed my mom,” she said.
The Charlotte County Sheriff Cold Case Team later established that Davis was employed with a landscape crew that did work in the Gill’s home prior to the murder.
“I think the biggest question we have is why,” Gill said. “Why did he take her away from my dad, my brother and I?”
From 1970 to 2004, Davis frequently traveling to Southwest Florida, one and off from time in Ohio. He had lived and worked in Charlotte, Lee and Hendry counties during that time period.
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office named Davis as a suspect in Gill’s case in 2020.
Davis is currently on death row in Ross County, Ohio for the murder of an 86-year-old woman in 2000. In that case, the victim was also stabbed to death in her home.
There aren’t many neighbors along the now heavily developed road that know the Gills or who lived here when this happened. But many still heard the horror of what happened.
“That just destroys somebody’s life and that is very sad,” Rivera said.
“He deserves just to be locked (up) the rest of his life probably,” said Antonio Riveria, who lives next door to the home where Sharon was murdered.
Krista doesn’t want her mother’s memory to be dark and sad, but rather true to the light of life she was.
“She was a beautiful woman inside and out,” she said. “Very giving, very loving and just a beautiful soul that was taken way too soon.”
Davis will be extradited to Charlotte County to face charges of first-degree murder.
