ORLANDO, Fla. – A 55-year-old man accused in a deadly attack on an Orlando pastor’s wife has now been charged in connection to a 2024 home burglary in Orlando, according to an arrest affidavit.
Ronald Davis, who faces a first-degree murder charge in the January beating death of Lucy Pat Curl, 85, is now connected to another crime, officials said.
The woman, who asked to not be identified, lives in the same neighborhood where the pastor’s wife was attacked in January. She spoke to News 6 reporter Catherine Silver about what happened at her home nearby just two months prior.
On Nov. 14, Orlando police officers responded to a home after the victim told police she found her garage door open and the inside door slightly ajar upon returning home from her daughter’s school.
“I stepped out of my home, went to the grocery store. I have a nanny that comes to help me with my young children. She took them with her to go out for the day, and the garage door wasn’t open or wasn’t working at that time. So she, wasn’t able to shut the garage.”
The woman said there was only a 30-minute window when no one was home and that’s when the burglary occurred. She said it has been a very difficult time for the whole neighborhood who are still grieving the loss of Curl.
“It’s been very hard. The [Curl] family has lived in the neighborhood for a long time. They are good members of the community. We’ve lived here for about eight years, and we have three small children,” she said. “It’s very unnerving, to feel like somebody has been prowling our neighborhood for that long, stalking homes and, you know, just trying to take items for who knows what.”
According to the arrest affidavit, the victim discovered through her security camera footage that an unknown black male had knocked on her front door before entering through the open garage. The suspect stole approximately $2,000 worth of jewelry, as well as a Rigid hammer drill and a leaf blower, valued at $150 and $249, respectively, officials said.
The suspect was seen leaving on a red bicycle with the stolen items.
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Officers canvassed the area but found no immediate leads. However, video surveillance captured the suspect, later identified as Davis, entering the residence.
Further investigation revealed that Davis had pawned the stolen leaf blower and drill at Value Pawn, located 2 miles from the crime scene, shortly after the burglary. Surveillance video from the pawn shop showed Davis wearing the same clothing that he wore during the burglary, the affidavit states.
The victim confirmed the drill as hers from a still photo. Based on the evidence, Davis faces charges of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and pawning stolen items.
Davis was listed as a potential suspect in the November 2024 burglary on Feb. 6, less than a week after police say he forced his way inside Curl’s home on Caribbean Court on Jan. 31 and started attacking her. Her husband, a pastor at First Baptist Church Orlando, called for help after he returned home and found his wife had been badly beaten. Curl died on Wednesday, according to a statement shared by the family.
News 6 also learned that Davis had a long criminal history that dates back to the 1980s.
Davis spent time in prison after a burglary case in Orange County. He was sentenced to 15 years in that case and was released from a correctional facility in June 2024 — seven months before Orlando police arrested him in connection to the Jan. 31 attack.
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