- March 10, 2025
Leroy Rashad Gadson, of Bunnell, received a sentence of life in prison, plus 30 years, after a Volusia County jury found him guilty Saturday of second-degree felony murder with a firearm and attempted robbery with a deadly weapon.
After a four-day trial, it took the jury just under an hour to reach a verdict.
According to Assistant State Attorney Ryan Will, who prosecuted Gadson, the defendant and three other men arranged to buy drugs from a known drug dealer in order to rob him. One of Gadson’s co-defendants lured the drug dealer into a hotel room in Holly Hill and ambushed him.
One of Gadson’s accomplices in the crime, 19-year-old Donnell Ellis, Jr., died in the shootout that followed. Gadson did not shoot Ellis, but since he died during the commission of the robbery, under state law, those responsible for a robbery can be held accountable for any resulting deaths.
Several other injuries were sustained in the shootout, according to a charging affidavit.
