William Jeffrey Devonshire was 52 when Sarasota police charged him, in March 2022, with the murder of Kelliann Ripley, a 48-year-old woman found dead in the city on February 25. He had already served a prison sentence in Delaware for a murder conviction in 2005. Police said he was also a strong suspect in the death of a second woman, Vicky Levitch, 59, found on March 10. He never stood trial. He died in the Sarasota County Jail on June 5, 2022, after a seizure and a brain bleed, and police closed both cases the next day, saying they had determined he committed both crimes. In October 2022 a state crime laboratory report linked him to the second death by DNA.
He was convicted of one killing, in Delaware. He was charged with a second, in Florida, and died before a court heard it. The third death was attributed to him by police alone.
Little is known of his early life. At a news conference in Sarasota after his death, police and prosecutors described a criminal history that began, WWSB reported, when he was 14, in Delaware. By the station's account he had been arrested more than 69 times, on charges that included domestic battery, aggravated assault, sexual battery and robbery. Sarasota police said he had criminal records in six states: New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, Delaware and Florida, with charges including assault, aggravated harassment, disorderly conduct, battery, burglary and trespassing, according to Your Observer.
The most serious case came in Delaware. In 2003 he was charged there with first-degree murder. Karen Fraivillig, an assistant state attorney in Sarasota, said the charge was later reduced to second-degree murder. He was convicted in 2005. The name of the person killed in Delaware and the length of the sentence have not been reported. He left prison in Delaware in 2013 and moved to Sarasota.
He was in trouble again there. In 2018 he was convicted in Florida of felony battery and burglary, and he served three years in the state prison system. He was released in August 2021, WWSB reported. WWSB described him in 2022 as a drifter.
Kelliann Ripley was a mother, a sister and a grandmother. Her family lived in Ohio. They described her to 10 Tampa Bay (WTSP) as a free spirit who encouraged other people to chase their dreams. Her daughter said she was always open to loving others; her brother said she was always there when he needed her. They remembered a sister who made up dance routines and a mother and grandmother who loved video calls with her grandchildren.
She was hard to keep in touch with, her daughter said, because she so often broke or lost her phone. The last time they spoke was around New Year's, when her mother texted to say she loved her and was proud of her. Her family said she was working toward moving in with a friend so she would have support in Florida. Her brother said he prayed for her every night.
People who knew her in Sarasota spoke warmly of her. A friend told WTSP that "everybody loved Kellie, she was wonderful," and that she ran errands for people and would do anything for them.
She was found dead in Sarasota just before 5 p.m. on Friday, February 25, 2022. Police treated the death as suspicious and opened a homicide investigation. The medical examiner found that she died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.
Less is known about Vicky Levitch. She was 59 and lived in Sarasota. Her name appears as Vicky in some reports and Vickie in others. She was found dead in Sarasota just before 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2022, less than two weeks after Kelliann Ripley. Police classified her death as a homicide, and investigators later said she died of strangulation.
Police said both women were homeless or quasi-homeless.
At first the police said little. A March 11 release said the two deaths were being investigated, that it was not known whether the women knew each other or whether whoever killed them knew them, and that their identities were protected under Marsy's Law. Patrols were increased across the city, and the department asked residents and visitors to stay alert and to report anything suspicious.
The interim police chief, Rex Troche, held a news conference on March 11 and asked the public for help. He did not directly link the two deaths. "I think people out there need to know that there isn't information that is too miniscule, too minor," he said, as quoted by Your Observer.
Behind that public caution, detectives were building a case. They later described gathering surveillance video, witness accounts and cellphone tracking information, according to WWSB. Police said they had probable cause to keep Devonshire under surveillance before they arrested him.
On Friday, March 25, 2022, Sarasota officers arrested Devonshire in a city park on charges of trespassing, possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. He gave investigators a cheek swab for DNA comparison. The accounts differ on timing: WTSP reported that he gave the sample voluntarily on March 15, while Your Observer and WWSB reported that the swab was taken after, or at, his March 25 arrest. Detective Kim Laster later said he gave the sample voluntarily.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyzed the sample on an expedited basis. While he was held on the drug and trespassing charges, the department told Sarasota police that his DNA matched swabs collected from Kelliann Ripley, according to Fox 4 (WFTX). On Saturday, March 26, he was charged with her murder. Jail records listed the charge as murder, "dangerous depraved without premeditation," and showed him held without bail, Your Observer reported. His arraignment was set for April 29.
At a news conference on Monday, March 28, Troche announced the charge. He said Ripley's family had allowed police to identify her publicly. Troche called Devonshire a "strong suspect" in the March 10 death, citing a "very strong correlation" between the evidence in the two cases. He said Devonshire was not being very cooperative, and police said they were still trying to determine whether he knew either woman. Additional charges were pending, police said.
Devonshire had epilepsy. Detective Laster said he refused to take his medication in jail. On May 17, 2022, he had a seizure, struck his head and suffered a brain bleed, and he was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Doctors there determined that treatment would not help, WWSB reported. He was returned to the jail on May 27 under hospice care with a do-not-resuscitate order.
He died at the Sarasota County Jail at 6:38 a.m. on Sunday, June 5, 2022, according to WTSP. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said its detectives believed he died of a medical-related illness and that the District 12 Medical Examiner's Office would determine the official cause. WWSB reported the cause as apparently natural. No final ruling by the medical examiner has been reported.
On June 6 police and prosecutors announced at a news conference that both homicide cases were closed. Because he had died, the State Attorney's Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit could not continue the prosecution.
Capt. Johnathan Todd, who led the department's Criminal Investigations Division, said in a statement that detectives had "indisputable evidence that links Devonshire to both of the homicides." After analyzing the evidence in both cases, he said, detectives had determined that Devonshire committed both crimes, and they were preparing a probable cause affidavit charging him with the second murder when they learned of his death.
Detectives described the similarities between the two deaths as striking. Detective Maria Llovio said lab results had found his DNA in evidence from the second case. She said he had cooperated in questioning, but called the interview "a cat-and-mouse game," and said she believed he gave the DNA swab because he felt safe and thought he had covered his tracks.
Troche acknowledged that the outcome was not what anyone wanted. Both families, he said, deserved to see Devonshire face a court. "These families were victimized here," he said, as quoted by WWSB. Llovio told the families that the department would have given them a better result if it could.
Kelliann Ripley's daughter told WWSB that she had mixed feelings. Part of her could accept the outcome, because he could no longer hurt anyone. The other part wanted the answers a trial might have given. "There's like a void cause I don't have the answers to the questions that I wanted to know," she said. She thanked the Sarasota Police Department for getting him behind bars quickly.
She said she was focusing on remembering her mother. "The memory, of course, is what we'll actually get to carry," she said.
Her brother, speaking to WTSP after the arrest, urged people to reach out to relatives they had not spoken to in a while, because "you just don't know what's going to happen tomorrow." The family said they hoped no other family would have to go through the same loss.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement completed its work on the second case after Devonshire died. In a report dated October 7, 2022, the department told Sarasota police that DNA matching Vicky Levitch had been found on his clothing, according to Your Observer and WTSP. Police said that before those results they already had enough evidence to link him to her death.
"We had indisputable evidence that linked Devonshire to both homicides that occurred in February and March," Todd said in a statement, and he credited the state laboratory with expediting the DNA processing after the February death, which allowed the arrest.
Devonshire's only murder conviction is the Delaware case of 2005. In Florida he was charged with murder in the death of Kelliann Ripley, and he died before trial, so he was never convicted of it. The death of Vicky Levitch was attributed to him by the Sarasota Police Department, which said it had determined he committed it and later cited a DNA match; no charge was filed, and no court weighed that evidence.
The date and place of his birth, the identity of the person killed in Delaware, the county where that case was heard and the length of his Delaware sentence have not been reported. Accounts also differ on the date of the DNA swab and on the spelling of Vicky Levitch's first name.
2003: Charged in Delaware with first-degree murder; the charge is later reduced to second-degree murder.
2005: Convicted of murder in Delaware.
2013: Leaves prison in Delaware and moves to Sarasota, Florida.
2018: Convicted in Florida of felony battery and burglary; serves three years in state prison.
August 2021: Released from the Florida prison system.
February 25, 2022: Kelliann Ripley, 48, is found dead in Sarasota.
March 10, 2022: Vicky Levitch, 59, is found dead in Sarasota.
March 11, 2022: Police announce two homicide investigations; interim Chief Rex Troche asks for the public's help.
March 25, 2022: Devonshire is arrested on trespassing and drug charges.
March 26, 2022: Charged with the murder of Kelliann Ripley after a DNA match; held without bail.
March 28, 2022: Troche calls him a strong suspect in the second death.
May 17, 2022: Taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital after a seizure and brain bleed.
May 27, 2022: Returned to the jail under hospice care.
June 5, 2022: Dies in the Sarasota County Jail, aged 52.
June 6, 2022: Police close both homicide cases, saying they had determined he committed both.
October 7, 2022: State laboratory report finds DNA matching Vicky Levitch on his clothing.