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Thread: James Davis Sentenced to Life in 2010 FL Slaying of Stephen Perry

  1. #1
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    James Davis Sentenced to Life in 2010 FL Slaying of Stephen Perry


    Stephen Perry





    Pasco jurors find man guilty of murder in death, dismemberment of ‘ThunderCats’ writer


    It took the jury less than four hours to convict James Davis of first-degree murder in Stephen Perry’s death

    By Anastasia Dawson
    Tampa Bay Times

    DADE CITY — If he was nervous, James Davis never showed it as deputies ushered him to his seat Monday. In fact, his khaki suit seemed to be the only thing rumpled by the week’s worth of damning testimony linking Davis to the death and dismemberment of his former roommate: “ThunderCats” cartoon writer Stephen Perry.

    “Does he at least have a tie on?” Davis’ defense attorney, Anne Borghetti, asked Pasco County sheriff’s deputies as attorneys anxiously filed back into Judge Gregory Groger’s courtroom Monday afternoon. In just under four hours, the seven men and five women on Davis’ jury had reached their verdict.

    “No, we don’t want him with a tie on,” a group of deputies said in grim unison.

    One by one, jurors confirmed their decision: the 56-year-old handyman from Zephyrhills is guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder.

    Still, Davis remained somber and solemn. No tears, no gasps.

    At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Davis and those same 12 jurors will return to the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center in Dade City for the death penalty phase of Davis’ trial. Groger has asked jurors to remain available through Friday.

    Perry’s severed arm was found decomposing in a motel dumpster 12 years ago to the day Davis’ first-degree murder trial finally began on May 16.

    Davis’ defense team called only one witness to the stand before resting its case on Thursday — a retired Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst who searched for fingerprints on the multiple black garbage bags, bottles of bleach and reciprocating saw blades that tested positive for Perry’s remains.

    No fingerprints were found on those items, Borghetti told jurors in her closing argument Monday morning. In fact, she said, none of the many pieces of evidence that tested positive for Perry’s DNA — the body pillow soaked in blood and riddled with bullet holes, the pieces of flesh found decomposing in the crevices of a reciprocating saw Davis had borrowed from a friend, the pools of blood that settled under toy chests and among little green Army men on the bedroom floor where Perry’s then-5-year-old son Leo slept — showed any traces of Davis’ DNA, she told the jury.

    “There is no eyewitness here,” Borghetti said. “This is a purely circumstantial case.”

    Davis worked as a handyman, and Perry had given him permission to drive his van whenever needed, she told the jury. It wasn’t unusual for Davis to borrow tools from his neighbors while working various jobs, and it wouldn’t be unusual for him to make purchases at Home Depot, Walmart or Kmart for the items listed in the bundle of receipts recovered from Perry’s blood-soaked van that all linked back to Davis.

    There were plenty of other suspects with motives that were either disregarded or ignored by investigators, Borghetti argued. There was Perry’s estranged girlfriend, Krystal Carroll, who was locked in a bitter custody battle over their young son when the 56-year-old cartoonist disappeared. There was Carroll’s new boyfriend, carnival worker Joel Porter, and there was Davis’ cousin, Charles Lumley, who was seen on video with Davis as they purchased items and checked into the Quality Inn on Bearss Avenue in Tampa.

    Assistant State Attorney Manny Garcia told jurors there is not “a scintilla of evidence” linking any of the people offered by the defense as possible suspects to Perry’s killing.

    There is, however, an avalanche of other evidence connecting Davis to the fatal shooting and dismemberment — DNA, bloody footprints, withdrawals from Perry’s bank accounts days after his death and videos and photos of Davis purchasing items the average handyman would rarely, if ever, need. Items such as bottles of Lysol and industrial bleach, boxes of large, black garbage bags, tarps, saw blades and large bags of hydrated lime. All of those items were found among Perry’s scattered remains, and, in many cases, the lime powder made it impossible for analysts to collect the DNA or fingerprint evidence the defense team argued was lacking.

    Not only did investigators find the receipts for all of those items in Perry’s van, but they also found they were covered in Davis’ fingerprints. His prints were also found on a Kmart bag full of cleaning supplies and tarps and a box of black Husky trash bags with red plastic ties — the same make and model of bags that held Perry’s remains.

    And while neither Davis’ DNA or prints were found on the outside of the garbage bags, his DNA covered both the inside and outside of a pair of discarded green gloves left in the bag that concealed Perry’s arm, Garcia said.

    “If you put all the hundreds of pieces of evidence together, you’re going to get a picture — and that picture is that the murderer in this case is none other than James Davis,” Garcia said.

    The state is not required to prove a motive, he said, and numerous motions made over 12 years of litigation prevented many of the possible motives from being aired in court.

    “But we have our beliefs as to why he did it,” Garcia said. “Think about it ― the oxycodone. A whole bottle is gone that had just been filled May 2, and another bottle — gone.”

    Perry was battling bladder cancer at the time of his death, and “ThunderCats” fans from around the world had been funneling money into a PayPal account created to help Perry cover his medical expenses.

    In the days after Perry was known to be dead, surveillance footage and bank records show a man driving Perry’s van made withdrawals from those accounts while wearing multiple disguises. Those disguises — a mask, a bandana, a wig and a camo hat — were all found in Davis’ room, along with Perry’s bank cards, Garcia said.

    Yet no DNA evidence came back conclusively tying Davis to those disguises, his lawyers argued. And while his cousin and law enforcement identified him as the man seen in surveillance footage, who can really say for sure, they asked.

    But perhaps most important to the state’s case, Garcia countered, is that they could show premeditation. In Davis’ bedroom, there were printouts of internet articles on topics such as how to make a homemade silencer — all printed in February 2010, three months before Perry’s murder. There was a notebook with lists of reminders such as “get a gun” and times that would provide an opportunity to kill Perry.

    And then there was the letter — a postcard Davis wrote to his wife Roxanne while in jail on an unrelated drug charge in the weeks before he was charged with Perry’s murder. The letter, Garcia told the jury, is tantamount to his “confession or admission that he killed Stephen Perry, without a doubt.”

    “I’m not going anywhere soon,” Davis wrote. “Baby, I sure wish I could talk to you. There is so much I want to tell you to explain things. Maybe that day will come. Until then, don’t believe everything you hear. I am not ashamed or sorry for anything but the fact that I probably will never be with the ones I love again, at least not free.

    “You need to understand this so you can do whatever is best for you and your future. … Baby, I’m sorry I f----- up our future. But believe me, I had no choice. I’m sorry if this letter leaves you sad, but you have to know the truth. There’s no way to make it easier. Please don’t let the kids think bad of me. I will fight to the end, you know me.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/...ercats-writer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #2
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    Pasco man sentenced to life, not death, for killing, dismembering ‘ThunderCats’ writer

    A jury voted against the death penalty for James Davis Tuesday for the 2010 slaying of Stephen Perry

    By Anastasia Dawson

    Tampa Bay Times

    DADE CITY — At first, James William Davis told the judge he wasn’t going to defend his right to live.

    After 12 years in jail and a week’s worth of grisly testimony, a 12-member jury decided Monday that Davis, a 56-year-old handyman from Zephyrhills, was guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder for the death and dismemberment of his former roommate: “ThunderCats” cartoon writer Stephen Perry.

    His eyes seemed dour and distant as Davis told 6th Judicial Circuit Judge Gregory Groger his decision. He didn’t want anyone to testify on his behalf when the seven men and five women who convicted him of murder returned to court Tuesday to decide his sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. The court could hear from two psychologists who worked with Davis during the 12 years he’s spent in jail awaiting trial, Davis said, but he didn’t want his family to have to come to his defense — particularly his mother, who’s battling cancer and ongoing heart issues.

    But come Tuesday morning, Davis’ mother and brother were there, sitting in the gallery of Groger’s courtroom as Davis’ attorneys pleaded with him to make his case.

    “There are people who care about you,” defense attorney Anne Borghetti told her client, her arm around his back as he turned to face his family.

    “James Davis has a life worth saving,” defense attorney Jenna Finkelstein said.

    In the end, their arguments were persuasive enough to convince both their client and his jury. It took less than two hours for jurors to return a verdict that spared Davis from an eventual execution.

    Instead, he’ll die a natural death in prison — a regulated environment where he’s learned to thrive, his defense attorneys said.

    Stefanie Beetz, a former mental health coordinator at the Pasco County jail, told the court about how Davis had blossomed under a program that offers mental health counselling tailored to those who struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. In fact, when the coronavirus made it impossible for Beetz and other clinicians to continue holding biweekly group meetings inside the jail, Davis took on the role of instructor to keep the classes going, she said.

    Neuropsychologist Hyman Eisenstein told the jury about Davis’ upbringing — how his mother became pregnant at the age of 14 and, before Davis was born, his father was shot and killed. He spoke of how Davis was raised primarily by his grandmother, alongside a rotating cast of children — some uncles and aunts, others cousins.

    Davis was enrolled in seven different elementary schools, and by the 11th grade had dropped out of school completely — but not because he was troubled, Eisenstein said. By the age of 15, he was working almost full time at a nearby McDonald’s so he could help support his family, and despite what the doctor described as Davis’ developmental traumas, Davis went on to have a successful marriage of 30 years, with two stepdaughters he raised as his own, Eisenstein said.

    “Jimmy was my life, and he still is,” Davis’ mother, Gloria Pierce, told the court. “I love all my kids, but Jimmy, being the first, was special. He was such a good boy and has always been there for me.”

    Pinellas-Pasco assistant state attorney Manny Garcia argued that Davis’ background, and the horrific manner in which Perry was killed, met not just one but four of the aggravating factors state law requires for seeking the death penalty.

    Davis was previously convicted of another capital felony involving violence, Garcia said — two armed robberies and two kidnappings. Neither Davis’ defense attorneys nor the jurors could deny that Davis has a violent criminal history, the prosecutor said.

    But jurors didn’t agree that Garcia’s other three aggravating circumstances could be prescribed to Davis’ crime or life, according to their enumerated response in their verdict.

    Garcia failed to convince the jury that Perry’s death also met the “aggravating circumstance” for felonies committed for financial gain. He had reminded the jurors of the hundreds of dollars withdrawn from Perry’s bank accounts in the days after May 10, 2010 — the day forensic experts believe the 56-year-old writer was killed. Perry’s bank cards were later found in Davis’ bedroom, Garcia said, and Davis’ cousin was among those who identified him in surveillance footage driving Perry’s van while making withdrawals from various ATMs.

    Garcia asked the jurors to remember the articles on topics such as how to make a homemade silencer that were found in Davis’ room, all printed in February 2010 — three months before Perry was killed. Then there was the notebook full of to-do lists with items such as “get a gun” and “get disguise,” Garcia said. But to the jury, the evidence wasn’t enough to prove that Perry’s slaying was “committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense or moral or legal justification,” adding a third aggravating circumstance to Davis’ sentencing.

    And then there was the victim himself - a man who was battling both bladder cancer and an ex-girlfriend over custody of their then-5-year-old son, Leo. His diagnosis wasn’t enough for the jury to consider him “particularly vulnerable due to a disability.”

    But in a letter, Leo Perry wrote of his own vulnerability without his father’s guidance in his life.

    Now 17 years old, Leo offered the only words jurors heard from a loved one on his father’s behalf.

    “I never understood why men act the way they do, because I was robbed of the opportunity to ask my father for any life advice,” Leo’s letter said. “Because of this, I suffer from severe masculine insecurity and depression. Within this slew of emotions, I would always come out the end of the tunnel empty, gripping at any and all memories that I could.

    “My life has been made 10 times harder than it would have if I had my father with me, and my mental health would have been a lot healthier. I am angry with James Davis for causing so much damage. All these years, and the only question I have for him is ‘why?’”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/...ercats-writer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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