Sex offender sentenced to life for lewd and lascivious molestation of a child
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – An Alachua County Jury has found Donald Bryan McKee guilty of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 years of age and lewd exhibition by an offender over 18 years of age. The jury deliberated for just under two hours, and Judge James Colaw sentenced McKee to life in state prison.
On February 3, 2022, Gainesville Police Department launched an investigation based on a tip from Gulfport Police Department in Gulfport, FL. Investigators determined that McKee, a designated Sexual Predator in Florida, had exposed himself and then guided a child to touch him inappropriately sometime between September 2019 and September 2020. McKee, a neighbor to the child’s family, had befriended the child, who was 6 years old at the time, bringing him gifts and frequently telling the child and his mother that he and his wife had lost a child years ago who looked just like the victim. The mother and child knew him as “Dan.”
The child described the relationship as a “best friendship,” and it continued several months. One day, McKee asked the child to ask his mother if he could go with him to run an errand to a bank on Archer Road. The mother gave permission, but once there, the child said, McKee did not go into the bank. Instead, McKee allegedly got into the back seat with the child and said he wanted to show him a “secret tunnel.” He then lowered the back seat, and the two crawled into the trunk of the car, where they lay on their backs “talking.” The child reported that McKee had turned away from him and was moving his hands “vigorously.” The child said he asked McKee if he had an itch, and McKee allegedly said he did and asked the child to help him scratch it. He allegedly turned toward the child with his zipper down, and the child said he “scratched” through the zipper until he “realized what he was doing” and then stopped in “fear and shock.” The child said McKee told him not to say anything to his mother, and they got out of the trunk. After McKee finished his business at the bank, he took the child home.
The child’s mother reported that not long after the trip to the bank, McKee knocked on her door and “pleaded with her” to keep the child away from him, without explanation. The mother assumed the child had done something to offend McKee. The mother and child did not interact with McKee again, and they moved away from Gainesville in September 2020.
The child told his mother about the incident in December of 2021, afraid that he would be in trouble and that “Dan” would harm him if he talked about it. The mother did not know “Dan’s” identity. However, they were able to tell detectives where “Dan” lived, and detectives determined that McKee lived in that apartment during the time period in question.
Good, let’s get ALL children rapist off the streets PERMANENTLY.
Agree, off the str! But, parents should have first shot at him before prisoners do. They should be able to choose either; pliers, wooden mallet, razor blade, or heavy chain; be restricted to 2 minutes below the waist while sexual predator is naked and chained.
It’s about time.
20 to 30 years free room & board! forget it should be put to death!
Having been sexually assaulted at the ages of 5 and 9, I can tell you that these horrendous acts stayed with me well into middle late age and had a devastating impact on me. Sexual predators should get life in prison without any chance of parole or the death penalty. All too often, when they are allowed back on the street, they continue to commit the same or similar crimes. This just isn’t acceptable.