Kaylin Fiengo, an 18-year-old White woman from Sanford, Florida, was a mother to a young son and was expecting her second child. Her family described her as a “vivacious, loving, funny, and caring young woman” who took her role as a mother very seriously. Her father said it would take a village to raise her son and let him know how great his mother was.
Sanford’s police chief called her a young mother who had her whole life ahead of her.
On the night of November 11, 2022, a police officer patrolling Coastline Park in Sanford found a car backed into a parking spot with its engine running. Inside the vehicle, in the driver's seat, was Kaylin Fiengo. She had been shot and killed. Investigators who processed the scene found a bullet casing and an ultrasound image near her body. The investigation confirmed that Kaylin was at the end of her first trimester of pregnancy.
Detectives determined that Kaylin had gone to the park that night to meet Donovan Faison, her 21-year-old boyfriend and the father of her unborn child. In the weeks leading up to her death, the couple had several arguments about the pregnancy. According to investigators, Faison wanted Kaylin to have an abortion, but she refused. Text messages recovered from their phones showed Faison erupting in anger after Kaylin sent him a photo of two positive pregnancy tests, texting back "Abortion!!!" In another text to a friend about Kaylin, Faison wrote, "On my brothers grave, I’m gonna crop her out.” Her refusal to terminate the pregnancy was identified as the probable motive for the homicide.
After a nearly 10-month investigation, police arrested Donovan Faison on August 29, 2023. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Kaylin and her unborn child, as well as burglary for shooting into her car. "This beautiful, young woman and mother, was taken from this world far too soon, and in a horrific way," said Police Chief Cecil Smith, who hoped the arrest would bring "the slightest amount of peace" to Kaylin's family.
In October 2025, a Seminole County jury heard the case against Faison. Prosecutors presented the text messages as evidence that he lured Kaylin to the park and planned her murder. After deliberating for about two hours, the jury found Donovan Faison, then 23, guilty of first-degree murder with a firearm, killing an unborn child, and burglary with a firearm.
During the penalty phase, the prosecution described the crime as a "cold, calculated, premeditated" and "execution-style killing." The jury recommended the death penalty with an 11-1 vote. On December 5, 2025, Circuit Judge Donna Goerner sentenced Donovan Faison to death for the murders of Kaylin Fiengo and her unborn child. He also received a life sentence for the burglary charge.
