Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 24

Thread: Franklin Davis - Texas Death Row

  1. #1
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Capital Region NY
    Posts
    865

    Franklin Davis - Texas Death Row



    Shania Gray




    Dallas County DA to seek death penalty for man charged in slaying of teen he was accused of raping

    Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said this afternoon that he will seek a death sentence for a man charged with capital murder in the slaying of a 16-year-old girl he was accused of raping, according to a news release.

    Police say that in early September, Franklin Davis, who was indicted today, posed as another person on Facebook to make contact with Shania Gray, a sophomore at Hebron High in Irving.

    Gray was expected to testify against Davis, 30, at an upcoming trial. Davis was under indictment for four counts of sexual assault on Sept. 6 when he “took” Gray from her school to Sam Houston Trail Park, according to a news release from the DA’s office.

    Gray’s body was found two days later at the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. Gray was shot and strangled.

    Testimony is scheduled to begin April 15 before State District Judge Mike Snipes. Although trial dates often change.

    Prosecutors Russell Wilson, Brandon Birmingham and Jennifer Bennett are trying the case.

    Davis is represented by Karo Johnson, Phillip Hayes and Brady Wyatt, court records show.

    http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012...f-raping.html/

  2. #2
    spayneuteryourpets
    Guest
    Pretty girl. She babysat his kids. I hope he rots in hell.

    http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/...lleged-rapist/

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    This is a big deal. I don't remember, in the recent past, when District Attorney Craig Watkins has announced, so quickly and publicly, that the office would seek the death penalty in a case.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Davis Faces Death Penalty in Teen Slaying Trial

    A man accused of killing a Carrollton teenager to stop her from testifying against him in a sexual assault case faces the death penalty in a trial that starts Monday morning.

    According to an affidavit, Franklin Davis confessed to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray in September 2012 after gaining her trust be posing as someone else online.

    Carrollton investigators said Gray was killed to prevent her from testifying in the sexual assault case she had pending against him. Mesquite police said Davis had sex with Gray four times in 2010 when she was 14-years-old while she was babysitting his children.

    Davis was arrested in July 2011 and posted bond the next month. He was charged with four counts of sexual assault.

    Police say Davis admitted to luring Gray from Hebron High School using a fake social media profile and a prepaid phone. Posing as someone else, he convinced Gray to meet him at the school, he said. Davis told police that when he arrived at the school, Gray was surprised to see him.

    According to Davis' confession in the affidavit, he picked up Gray and drove her to the trail head at Champion Trail near Valley View Lane and Interstate 635.

    Davis told police Gray spotted a .380 pistol in his possession along the way and asked if he was going to hurt her. He said he told the girl he only wanted to talk about the case. Once at the trail head, Davis led Gray down the trail to the Trinity River, where he shot her twice with the pistol, he told police. Davis told police that the teenager asked him, 'Why?' as she partially fell into the Trinity River, clinging to life, before he strangled her with his foot.

    A cyclist found her body along the Trinity River two days later.

    Davis faces the charge of capital murder in the trial and could receive the sentence of death if convicted.

    Escape From Hospital With Deputy's Gun

    After being transported to Parkland Hospital for medical treatment in Dec. 2012, Franklin Davis was able to escape with a deputy's weapon. He was taken into custody later that same day after a brief standoff.

    Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez said a failure to follow procedures, not an issue of manpower, let to Davis' escape.

    "Standard procedure requires for all inmates to be escorted at all times while on medical visits to Parkland," she said. "Procedures were not totally followed; an error was made."

    According to court records obtained by the Dallas Morning News, Davis asked his lone guard if he could take a shower. The guard then took off Davis' handcuffs and leg shackles.

    Davis then confronted the deputy with a sharp object and managed to wrestle away the deputy's gun after a two-minute struggle, the newspaper reported.

    Dallas police and Dallas County deputies searched the neighborhoods near the hospital for Davis and located him near Harry Hines Boulevard and Reagan Street.

    Davis then barricaded himself inside a van in the parking lot of the old Telemundo building. Davis surrendered to police after a standoff of a little longer than one hour.

    No one was injured, and no shots were fired. The standoff ended so quickly because police realized Davis dropped the gun he took from the deputy somewhere along Wycliff Avenue while fleeing.

    http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Fra...220169171.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #5

  6. #6
    Jan
    Guest
    August 19, 2013

    Davis Faces Death Penalty in Teen Slaying Trial

    The trial of a man accused of killing a Carrollton teenager to stop her from testifying against him in a sexual assault case was postponed Monday morning.

    According to an affidavit, Franklin Davis confessed to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray in Sept. 2012 after gaining her trust by posing as someone else online. The murder trail was scheduled to begin Monday but has now been postponed until Nov. 4, according to a court clerk.

    A reason for the postponement was not immediately given.

    http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Fra...220169171.html

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Death penalty trial to start Monday for man accused of killing teen

    A Dallas County jury will begin hearing testimony Monday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing his children’s teenage baby sitter after she accused him of rape.

    Franklin Davis, 31, is charged in the September 2012 slaying of 16-year-old Shania Gray. The girl had planned to testify against Davis the following month at his sexual assault trial. He has confessed to police and to the media that he killed the girl.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Davis is convicted.

    Davis’ lead defense attorney, Karo Johnson, declined to detail his trial strategy. But he said, “We do not feel he is guilty of capital murder. He is guilty of murder.”

    Capital murder is punishable by a death sentence or life in prison without parole. Murder is punishable by five years to life in prison with a chance of parole.

    The district attorney’s office declined to comment.

    This will be the third death penalty trial in Dallas County this year. One man received a death sentence for drowning his 3- and 5-year-old sons to get back at their mother. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence in another trial still in progress where a man was convicted of killing an elderly convenience store clerk by setting her on fire during a robbery.

    Davis said last year in a jailhouse interview that he had only wanted to record Shania admitting that he didn’t rape her. She’d told police Davis had sex with her while she was caring for his children. She was 14 at the time.

    Davis denied the sexual assaults in a jailhouse interview. But he admitted to police that he lured Shania away from school in Carrollton using a fake Facebook account. Davis brought Shania to Campion Trails Park in Irving where, Davis told police, he walked her down to the Trinity River at gunpoint.

    “Why, Wish?” he said she asked, calling Davis by his nickname.

    He said he shot her twice with a .38-caliber pistol. But she was still breathing. Then, he stepped on her neck until she stopped breathing and tossed her body into the river, he said.

    “I just want everyone to remember me as the man that I was,” Davis said from jail at the time, “not as the monster I became on that day.”

    Shania’s body was found two days later in an inlet of the Trinity River on the border of Irving and Dallas.

    Davis also escaped with a sheriff’s deputy’s gun in December while being treated at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Davis made his escape, according to an arrest warrant, as soon as a deputy released restraints on him. Davis shoved a deputy against a wall, displayed a “makeshift sharp object” and struggled with the deputy for two minutes, according to court documents.

    Davis took the deputy’s gun and pointed it at the deputy telling him to “lay face down on the ground or he would shoot.”

    He was found in a van and surrendered after a standoff with police. No one was injured.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/commu...lling-teen.ece
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #8
    Jan
    Guest
    Prosecutors play recording of man trying to talk girl he killed out of testifying about rape, pretending he is someone else

    Before Franklin Davis shot and killed 16-year-old Shania Gray, he tried to talk her out of testifying that he raped her while she babysat his kids

    He did so under the guise of a man named “D” who contacted Shania and exchanged late night texts and phone calls

    Dallas County prosecutors seeking to send Davis to death row for killing Shania played one of those phone calls to jurors Tuesday. The voices of Shania and Davis filled the courtroom as jurors followed along with a transcript. Davis recorded the call, possibly hoping Shania would change her story if “D” asked her about the sexual assaults.

    Prosecutors and Davis’ defense attorneys don’t disagree that Franklin killed Shania. The defense is trying to spare Davis’ life by convincing jurors that he did not kill Shania in September 2012 to stop her from testifying at his trial the following month where he was charged with raping her when she was 14.

    Prosecutors want jurors to find Davis guilty of capital murder — which carries a possible death sentence — and defense attorneys say Davis committed murder.

    Shania was slain after Davis picked her up from high school in Carrollton. She had believed she would be meeting “D” that day. Davis shot Shania twice and then stepped on her throat to stop her breathing.

    In the phone call, the man Shania believes is “D” repeatedly asked about the sexual assaults. Shania repeatedly said she doesn’t want to talk about it but then relents.

    Davis presses for details but she doesn’t go into great detail.

    Shania said that the man would send the children to their rooms and they would have sex.

    Shania told “D” that she wished the cases would go away.

    “I wish he would just disappear,” she whispered.

    Davis told Shania about a woman he knew who falsely accused a man of rape and ended up getting arrested.

    “They ended up attacking her like she was the one who did the rape,” Davis said.

    He then said, if Shania wants it to be over, tell the police: “I lied.”

    Shania said she can’t.

    Davis tried another tactic, saying that the man might “have a grudge against you.” He might come after her when he gets out of jail, he says.

    His words don’t appear to sway Shania.

    During the hour-long phone call, the two also talked about her younger brother, Shania playing basketball with her stepfather and the fact that her biological father committed suicide.

    “He probably had a lot of stuff going on and couldn’t handle it,” Davis told her.

    http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013...out-rape.html/

  9. #9
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Defendant has outbust during capital murder trial: ‘The State of Texas [expletive] me over'

    While a jury deliberates in one death penalty case, testimony continues in another courtroom for a second man facing a possible death sentence.

    When state District Judge Mike Snipes ruled he would not admit several recordings the defendant, Franklin Davis, made of phone conversations he had with the 16-year-old girl he killed, Davis began yelling in court.

    He swore at the judge several times.

    Davis was ushered into a holding cell adjacent to the courtroom where he continued his tirade.

    A thump was heard from the cell. The door was open but bailiffs and his attorneys were standing in the doorway.

    The jury was not present.

    Davis came back out without his suit jacket. He put it back on and testimony has resumed before the jury.

    Davis was recording the conversation and pretending to be someone else in an attempt to get the Shania Davis to change her story or admit she lied about the rapes.

    Davis shot and killed Shania in September 2012 after picking her up from school in Carrollton. Shania thought she would be meeting the person she had been talking to on the phone.

    He has admitted to the murder but has denied the sexual assaults.

    http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013...nclick_check=1
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #10
    Jan
    Guest
    Jennifer Emily ‏@dallascourts

    Prosecution has rested in death penalty trial of Franklin Davis. Defense now presenting witnesses in guilt-innocence phase. Victim 16yo girl

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •