Inset: Donald Henry (Desoto County Jail). Background: President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One after meeting with Russia”s President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A Florida man was convicted of murdering a friend after an argument over Donald Trump led to the man stabbing the victim to death, authorities say.
Donald Henry, 38, was found guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of Shawn Popp, according to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office. The incident occurred on Oct. 22, 2022, at a home in the 6000 block of SW Shores Avenue in Arcadia. Deputies wrote in a probable cause arrest affidavit that paramedics pronounced Popp dead at the scene. Cops quickly took Henry into custody.
One witness told detectives a group of people were at the home smoking marijuana when Henry and Popp got into an “argument over Donald Trump” as the suspect was sharpening a knife. The argument became louder so another witness told the pair to “take it outside,” the affidavit said. A short time later Henry pushed Popp back into a sliding glass door, and stabbed him in the chest.
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“You stabbed me you son of a b—,” Popp said, per the affidavit.
Popp walked outside and across the street before he collapsed.
Post Miranda, Henry claimed self-defense. He said he and Popp were talking in the living room when they started arguing about “Donald Trump filing for bankruptcy.” The complaint did not explain the argument any further. After a while Popp left the home before coming back inside and “was talking to him like he was stupid,” Henry told cops. Henry said Popp started punching him in the face and that’s when his “training” kicked in and he “hit Shawn once.”
Asked to clarify, Henry told deputies he hit him with a kitchen knife. He said he stabbed Popp in the upper chest “because he was taught to stop the threat, like police officers are,” cops wrote. He claimed that he considered fists to be “deadly weapons.” But cops found no injuries on him that would indicate he needed to defend himself.
Henry was taken to the DeSoto County Jail where he has been ever since. His sentencing is scheduled for October.
