Notorious armed hot prowl burglar tried to break into San Francisco woman’s home, won bail again, and was then found with a gun, say prosecutors
A felon whose rap sheet includes a deadly home invasion burglary, who won bail after an attempted home burglary, while already on bail for robbery and burglary, then arrested by SFPD, allegedly with a revolver, and who then violently escaped, will appear in a San Francisco courtroom today.
Prosecutors say Donnie Howard, 36, tried to break into a woman’s apartment on Pine Street in the early hours of February 2 2025.
Judge Gerardo Sandoval released him on his own recognizance on February 6. On April 18 he was arrested by eagle-eyed cops in the city’s Tenderloin district.
SFPD patrol officers had been concerned to see an e-bike being ridden unsafely on Golden Gate Avenue. Prosecutors say the rider, Howard, refused to stop and led police on a chase during which he discarded a loaded .38 revolver on which his DNA was later found.
Howard had pressing business in Alameda County where his trial was due to start on a robbery charge. So four days later prosecutors there sent officials to take him from San Francisco county jail.
However Howard kicked out the rear window of the Alameda officials’ car and escaped.
“While being transported on eastbound I-80,” wrote San Francisco prosecutor Rebecca Warren in a motion to detain, “the defendant became increasingly agitated, leaned forward and repeatedly kicked the rear passenger window of the DA Inspector’s car until the window shattered.”
“The defendant manipulated the door and continued kicking as the Inspector exited the freeway at 4th St. [he] maneuvered his upper body out of the window…reached his hands to the door handle and…opened the door.”
Howard leaped from the vehicle while still wearing handcuffs and ran away from the Alameda staff, who had to summon assistance from SFPD to recapture him. He was later caught by SFPD in a room at the Bay Bridge Inn motel and was handed back to Alameda authorities.
On October 24 2025 Howard was convicted in San Mateo County of burglary and sentenced to 32 months in state prison. San Francisco prosecutors had to make special arrangements to have him brought from Kern State Prison back to the city to face his pending attempted burglary charge here.
Howard’s rap sheet includes a 2009 conviction for burglary in Alameda and 2022 convictions for machine gun possession and burglary in Los Angeles.
But his storied criminal career is most notably marked by his conviction for first degree special circumstances murder – after 80-year-old June Pavon was murdered by his accomplice during their 2010 burglary of the Hayward Hills home where the victim lived alone. She had been shot four times in the head and chest.
Howard was found guilty by an Alameda jury who found that, because the murder had been committed during a felony in which he was a part, he was eligible for a life without parole sentence.
The Appeal Court threw out the life without parole sentence in 2018 because, while Howard knew one of his accomplices was armed, he couldn’t have foreseen a killing would have resulted from the burglary.
As a consequence, Howard’s murder conviction was ultimately vacated by an Alameda judge and he was instead convicted of first-degree burglary and handed a seven-year sentence.
Howard earlier pleaded not guilty to attempted burglary, possession of burglary tools and a battery of firearm offenses.
He will appear this morning in Department 11 of San Francisco Superior Court for a preliminary hearing, at which a judge will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send him to trial.
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