Leo Cisneros Found? Charges, Evidence, and the Manhunt

Leo Cisneros, the Miami nightclub owner accused of masterminding the 1994 murder-for-hire killing of St. Petersburg pediatric emergency physician Dr. Louis Davidson, has never been found. He fled to Jamaica before Florida authorities could arrest him, and despite a 2008 feature on America’s Most Wanted, his whereabouts remain unknown.¹² He still faces a first-degree murder charge in Pinellas County.³

What Cisneros Is Wanted For

On January 25, 1994, Dr. Louis Davidson, head of emergency room pediatrics at Bayfront Medical Center, was found face down in the bathtub of his St. Petersburg apartment. He had been blindfolded, gagged, and hogtied with a vacuum cleaner cord and a cashmere belt, beaten with a blunt object, and drowned.⁴³ At the time, Davidson was in the middle of divorce and custody proceedings with his wife, Denise Davidson.

Prosecutors alleged that Denise and her boyfriend, Cisneros, conspired to have Dr. Davidson killed, and that Cisneros, who had ties to Jamaican drug networks, recruited two associates, Robert Roy Gordon and Meryl Stanley “Tony” McDonald, to carry out the killing.² Between August 1993 and February 1994, Denise wired roughly $15,000 to Gordon through Western Union, using the alias “Pauline White” for at least one transfer.⁵

The Evidence Against Him

Cisneros was not physically present at the murder scene. Investigators confirmed that through a wiretap on Denise Davidson’s home phone, which captured her berating Cisneros for paging the hit men 50 times on the morning of the killing.⁵

The electronic trail pointed back to him anyway. A cellular phone Denise had purchased for Cisneros in December 1993 was used heavily by the conspirators, with records showing 201 calls to the Davidson home and 86 calls to Denise’s workplace. Calls placed on the morning of the murder originated from the vicinity of Dr. Davidson’s Thunderbay Apartments.⁵

Cisneros also made statements that prosecutors treated as near-admissions. When detectives interviewed him in Jamaica, he asked, “What would happen if I told you I sent somebody there to beat him up and they just got carried away?”³ Assistant State Attorney Fred Schaub said Cisneros was recorded telling his driver, “I hired a couple of hit men a while back, but I didn’t think they were going through with it, or the contract had been called off.”⁵ Detectives were never able to obtain hair or blood samples from him before he became a fugitive.⁶

Investigators also learned that Cisneros had an outstanding narcotics trafficking warrant out of Georgia, from an earlier traffic-stop arrest, and that he was connected to Jamaican drug organizations.⁶

Flight and the Search Since

Cisneros fled to Jamaica before Florida authorities could arrest him. Reports suggest he later moved from Jamaica to Colombia, though his movements have never been confirmed.²

In 2008, America’s Most Wanted featured his case, but the broadcast did not generate leads that led to an arrest.¹ Unverified rumors have circulated online that he may have died in Cuba, but there has been no official confirmation of his death or capture.²

Everyone Else Charged Has Been Convicted

Cisneros is the only person charged in the Davidson killing who has never faced trial. Denise Davidson was arrested on March 4, 1994, at Tampa International Airport while attempting to flee to Jamaica. At trial, she said Cisneros had masterminded the plot without her cooperation. She was convicted of first-degree murder on September 16, 1994, and sentenced to life in prison, and has been incarcerated at the Homestead Correctional Institution in Florida.³¹

Gordon and McDonald were tried together in June 1995 in Pinellas County, found guilty of first-degree murder, and sentenced to death on November 16, 1995, by Circuit Judge Susan F. Schaeffer after the jury recommended death by a nine-to-three vote.⁷ The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Gordon’s conviction and sentence in 1997 and McDonald’s in 1999. Both remain at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida, under death sentences, with no execution dates publicly set.²

Susan Shore, the British woman who drove Gordon and McDonald from Miami to Tampa on the day of the killing, was originally charged with first-degree murder but agreed to testify for the state. Her charge was reduced to accessory after the fact, she pleaded no contest, and she was sentenced to probation structured to end with her deportation to London.⁸

1
Forensic Files Now. Leo Cisneros
2
Forensic Files Now. Denise Davidson: A Jamaican Queen Falls
3
Oxygen. Denise Davidson Arranged Murder of Doctor Husband Louis
4
Justia. Gordon v. State
5
Tampa Bay Times. Murder Trial Turns Focus to Fugitive
6
Oxygen. Denise Davidson Arranged Murder of Estranged Husband Dr. Louis
7
Supreme Court of Florida. McDonald v. State, Answer Brief on the Merits
8
Tampa Bay Times. Witness Hopes to Start Over Again