South African man pleads guilty to 2011 slaying of Akron bank vice president

AKRON, Ohio — A 44-year-old South African man guilty of slayings in New Mexico and accused of another murder in Ohio was sentenced Monday to life in prison for the 2011 killing of an Akron woman.

Muziwokuthula Madonda pleaded guilty in Summit County Common Pleas Court to charges of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. All of the charges included gun specifications.

Authorities say that in February 2011, Madonda went to the home of Jaclyn Hilder, a bank vice president, and fatally shot her. According to prosecutors, Madonda believed Hilder’s boyfriend was keeping a large sum of money at the home. He was going to use the money on a trip to Montgomery County in Ohio, where he planned to kill a man he knew in college and steal his identity.

Days later, Madonda killed Zenzele Davis Mdadane, 25, also of South Africa, in Butler Township, Ohio, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutors Office. Madonda is accused of driving the victim to a wooded area and shooting him, then taking his possessions and fleeing to New Mexico.

In March 2011, Madondo fatally shot two men inside a hotel in Tucumcari, N.M. He was arrested by Texas Rangers and a firearm used in all four murders was found his vehicle, authorities say.

Madondo currently is serving a 24-year prison sentence in New Mexico for two murders he committed there after he fled Ohio. His sentence in Summit County will be served consecutively. He will be eligible for parole in Ohio after 33 years.

He first will be transferred to Montgomery County to face two counts of aggravated murder, four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, and two counts of felonious assault.

“We are all relieved that this criminal will never be on the streets again,” Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said in a statement. “After waiting for 11 long years, I hope Jacyln’s family now has some closure and can begin to heal, knowing this man will not hurt anyone else.”