Brooksville rampage survivor confronts accused shooter

The sliding glass door was shut, but Manessa Donovan still heard her mother yell from inside the house.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

The screaming was followed by three shots.

Donovan moved closer toward the back porch and saw a bullet hole in the glass.

She saw her mother, Kathryn "Kitty" Donovan, lying face down against the door.

Donovan said she came face-to-face with the gunman. He was coming after her next. His weapon was drawn and pointed at her. The muzzle was inches away from her chest.

Bullets entered her stomach, chest, hip, ribs and right hand.

She crumpled to the dirt. She was alive, but she lay motionless in the fetal position.

While on the witness stand Thursday morning, Donovan glared at her accused attacker. When she walked toward the court clerk to be sworn in, she looked over her right shoulder and stared angrily at the defendant — the man she used to affectionately call "Uncle Shorty."

John Kalisz, 57, is on trial for shooting Donovan and three other women – Kitty Donovan, 61, Deborah Tillotson, 59, and Amy Wilson, 35.

The shootings took place the afternoon of Jan. 14, 2010, at 15303 Wilhelm Road, where Kitty Donovan ran her home-based business. Tillotson and Wilson worked for her.

The elder Donovan and Tillotson died from their injuries.

Playing dead

Manessa Donovan, 21, said one slug remains lodged in her body – in her lower back next to her spine.

"Did there come a time when he stopped shooting you?" prosecutor Pete Magrino asked.

"I closed my eyes and put my head down," Donovan said. "When I opened them again, he was walking away from me towards Amy.

"I didn't move because I was pretending I was dead," she continued. "And also, one bullet hit me. I could feel it hit my hip. Even if I wanted to move, I couldn't."

Magrino asked her why she pretended to be dead.

"I wanted him to stop shooting me," she said.

Donovan said Kalisz said nothing during his rampage. She caught a glimpse of Wilson running through the 3-acre property toward the street in an effort to escape.

Wilson was pleading for her life while Kalisz stood above her and pulled the trigger again, said Donovan.

The women were shot a total of 14 times, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.

Wilson called 911 and the first deputy who responded to the scene, a shotgun-wielding Gisele Mulverhill, came up to her.

Wilson was alive, but staggering, said Mulverhill, who also testified Thursday.

"I noticed blood all over her," she said.

Mulverhill tended to Manessa Donovan next. Then she discovered Tillotson, who was behind the house in proximity to where Kitty Donovan lay.

Kitty Donovan appeared dead. Tillotson was barely alive.

"I could tell she was breathing, but not well," Mulverhill said.

Paramedics arrived moments later, but they couldn't save Tillotson.

Jurors saw video of the shooting scene. Several shell casings were spread across the carpet and near the flower bed in the backyard.

The video showed both bodies. The women were lying on their backs on either side of the broken glass door. Kitty Donovan's shirt was soaked in blood.

Manessa Donovan never told jurors she was eight weeks pregnant when she was shot. Her fetus died during emergency surgery.

A pledge to even the score

Todd Linville said he was stunned to see Kalisz show up at his house with a bottle of liquor. The two were close friends, and Linville knew Kalisz was a long-time member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

When he saw Kalisz take a swig from the bottle, Linville nearly threw up, he said.

Kalisz arrived at Linville's home in Brooksville the night before the shootings. He seemed to be in a dark place emotionally, Linville said Thursday on the witness stand.

An interview transcript between Linville and sheriff's detective includes information that incriminates Kalisz in the slayings. At one point, Kalisz told Linville he had "taken care of the problem." His problem, Linville said, was Kitty Donovan.

Kalisz blamed Donovan for his latest criminal conviction and for derailing his life, according to court testimony.

What Linville said during the interview, he was reluctant to say Thursday in the courtroom. He spoke softly and oftentimes Magrino pointed out how his testimony varied compared to what he told the detective two years ago.

In spite of Linville's perceived reticence, Magrino got him to admit one damning detail of the conversation.

"Did he tell you that they – they being Kathryn Donovan – ruined his life so he ruined theirs?" Magrino asked Linville.

"Something along those lines yeah," Linville said.

Part of the story in Dixie

Lt. Michael Brannin, of the Dixie County Sheriff's Office, was one of the first to see Kalisz's white van rolling north along the major highway that cuts through Cross City. Authorities up and down the U.S. 19 corridor were on the lookout for the suspect wanted in connection to the Hernando shootings, which had taken place about an hour earlier.

Kalisz had eluded capture for nearly 100 miles until Brannin spotted him.

He and other deputies followed the van and saw it make a wide turn into the parking lot of a BP station.

Brannin knew they were pursuing a suspected killer. He parked his pickup perpendicular to the van. He got out and crouched behind the hood, staring directly at Kalisz, who held up a gun.

Several rounds were fired among the deputies and Kalisz. Brannin said he fired four shots into the suspect's windshield.

Kalisz was shot several times. He was flown to a Gainesville hospital where doctors saved his life.

One year later, Kalisz pleaded guilty to killing Dixie County Sheriff's Capt Chad Reed during the gunfight in Cross City. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Brannin never mentioned Reed's death while on the stand Thursday and Magrino didn't ask about it. The trial judge ruled it could not be mentioned as part of the evidence.

More of the state's witnesses will testify today in Hernando. The trial is expected to last into next week.

Kalisz is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with the Wilhelm Road shootings. He faces the death penalty if convicted.