Man, 18, charged with killing N. Liberties waitress

The 18-year-old was on the hunt for something to steal on the night he came across Sabina Rose O'Donnell. Surveillance cameras caught him as he spent at least an hour biking around Northern Liberties and Fishtown, appearing to glance in car windows as he pedaled by. When the popular 20-year-old Northern Liberties waitress passed him on her way home, he finally saw something he wanted: her bike.

But, the account from police continued, the situation escalated, O'Donnell screamed, and Donte Johnson, now charged with her murder, snapped. O'Donnell was found the morning of June 2 in an overgrown lot behind her home at Fourth Street and Girard Avenue, strangled and beaten.

What started as a petty theft, police said, became one of the most gruesome Philadelphia killings this year, shocking an up-and-coming neighborhood associated more with glittering condominiums and trendy restaurants than with random violence. Residents started thinking twice about walking home alone, and people donated thousands of dollars to post a reward for the arrest of O'Donnell's killer.

Neighbors also provided police with a list of surveillance cameras in the area, and soon detectives were looking through endless hours of footage from the night O'Donnell died.

Last Thursday, police released footage from several cameras that recorded someone biking in aimless circles up and down Girard as he looked for, in Philadelphia Capt. James Clark's words, "someone to rob." The next day, police said, a tipster called with Johnson's name.

Johnson is known to police in his North Philadelphia neighborhood, and though he fled when two officers saw him late last week, Johnson's mother later persuaded him to surrender.

He turned himself in about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Within 10 or 15 minutes, according to police sources, Johnson admitted murdering O'Donnell and provided details and evidence that only her killer would have.

According to the police sources, Johnson said that after killing O'Donnell June 2, he had wiped his face with his white undershirt and thrown it over a nearby fence, where police found it. At home, Johnson stuffed the jeans he had been wearing into a laundry bag, where they remained until he led police to the bag this week, the sources said.

Johnson was charged Wednesday with murder, rape, and robbery.

Clark, of the homicide unit, would not confirm that Johnson had confessed.

"I will say we're 100 percent positive we have the right individual," Clark said.

Police were awaiting DNA test results that could link Johnson to evidence from the crime scene.

"That is the case," one source said. "There's no denying the DNA."

Johnson lived about seven blocks from O'Donnell on 11th Street in a complex of suburban-style townhouses encompassing several square blocks south of Girard. The homes, built by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, are relatively new and well-maintained, and residents praised the neighborhood.

A man who answered the door at Johnson's house declined to comment, and no one answered later in the morning when television news crews began arriving.

Next-door neighbor Cheryl Sanders, a school bus driver, said she had been shocked to learn of Johnson's arrest.

"To know it's that close to you is mind-blowing," she said.

She said Johnson lived with his mother and siblings, and was the oldest child. She said he was polite to his neighbors, and otherwise kept to himself.

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it," Sanders said.

Sources said Johnson had a record of arrests as a juvenile, and there was a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear in juvenile court. He does not have an adult record, and his juvenile record does not include sex crimes.

Johnson dropped out of William Penn High School in March 2009, according to the Philadelphia School District. Police did not know whether he had ever been employed.

Mark Rounds, O'Donnell's stepfather, declined to comment Wednesday on the arrest, but said he continued to be amazed by the strong effect his daughter had on people who met her while she was dancing, waiting tables, working the door at a party, even cashing her weekly paychecks. A memorial service in Northern Liberties last week drew hundreds.

"It's really incredible," Rounds said. "It seems like everyone who ever saw her remembers her."

O'Donnell was out with friends in Northern Liberties until 10:30 p.m. June 1, then went to a friend's apartment at Front Street and Girard. Police have said they believe she left between 2 and 2:30 a.m. June 2 and borrowed a friend's bike to go home.

Meanwhile, Clark said, Johnson was biking around the neighborhood on the prowl.

Police said Johnson had started following another woman at one point before seeing O'Donnell, but had failed to catch up to her and had given up.

O'Donnell crossed paths with the man on the bike around 2:45 a.m. at Fourth and Girard, according to the surveillance footage. Police believe O'Donnell reached the front of her apartment building, where, they said, Johnson caught up with her and grabbed her.

"He went to take her bike, she screamed, maybe gave a slight struggle," Clark said.

Police said Johnson had dragged her behind the building, attacked, and left her there, her clothes and items from her purse strewed around the lot on Orianna Street. The borrowed bike was left there, too.

Johnson then took O'Donnell's keys, entered her building, and tried to break into one of the other apartments, police said. He fled when a neighbor caught him, police said, and dropped O'Donnell's purse nearby on a sidewalk.

A passerby found O'Donnell's nude body shortly before 10 a.m., around the time she was due for her shift at the restaurant PYT.

The Northern Liberties community has been mourning O'Donnell since her death, and has been on edge. On Wednesday, as word of the arrest spread, some felt relief.

"I'm glad he's off the streets," said Phalla Sen, a close friend of O'Donnell's. "At the same time, I wish there were a way to heal someone who's sick like this. I know a lot of people's reaction is, 'Let's hang him,' but I don't believe in an eye for an eye, and I don't think Sabina would, either."