A South Carolina man accused of hunting down and executing his ex-girlfriend in the basement of her Queens apartment has been brought back to the borough to face justice, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Thursday.
De’Ovryion Elijha Ray, 23, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in Queens Criminal Court for allegedly gunning down 21-year-old Dashanna Donovan on Sept. 12. Defense attorney Christopher Renfroe pleaded not guilty on his behalf.
He was ordered held without bail.
Ray was arrested on unrelated charges in South Carolina on Oct. 7. Prosecutors with the Queens DA’s Office obtained a governor’s warrant to secure his return to New York. If convicted, Ray faces 25 years behind bars.
“This was a calculated, cold-blooded murder of a young woman who was running for her life when she was gunned down,” said Katz. “As alleged, the defendant traveled to New York, killed the victim and fled the state mere hours after the murder in a tragic case of domestic violence.”
Donovan was in the backyard of her East Elmhurst home on 96th St. near Astoria Blvd. when the sudden activation of a motion light drew her eye to an alleyway, where she saw her killer creeping toward her around 9:20 p.m., prosecutors said.
Donovan was so desperate to escape her killer that she ran out of her own shoes, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters after the killing.
The victim sought shelter in the basement of her building, where she was found dead with gunshot wounds to her head and upper body later that day, cops said.
Ray boarded a bus in Virginia on the day of the murder, arriving in Manhattan around 6:30 p.m., before riding the subway to Queens and walking to the victim’s home, prosecutors said.
He returned to Virginia Beach the night of the killing.
NYPD detectives zeroed in on Ray early on, knowing that Donovan had fled South Carolina six months earlier to escape an abusive boyfriend. The couple had worked together at a Walmart and had previously been arrested for a domestic spat, Kenny said.
Donovan was living with her grandmother, trying to rebuild her life, when Ray had tracked her down to New York, officials said.
Ray was caught on surveillance cameras charging at Donovan, as well as wandering around the Queens neighborhood more than two hours before the Sept. 12 shooting, apparently looking for her.
“It appears he may have known she was [in the neighborhood],” Kenny said of the shooter.
At a criminal hearing in South Carolina, Ray was informed of the indictment and that he had been charged with murder and weapons possession. He was remanded to custody, and the NYPD was given 30 days to bring him back to New York.
Ray, who lives in Simpsonville, S.C., was fighting extradition ever since cops nabbed him in October, officials said.
He is due back in court on March 6.
