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Thread: Barry Trynell Davis, Jr. - Florida

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    Barry Trynell Davis, Jr. - Florida


    Barry Davis, left, is charged with killing Santa Rosa Beach resident John Hughes and his girlfriend, Heidi Rhodes of Panama City.



    State to seek death penalty for Davis

    Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore announced Tuesday that the state will seek the death penalty for Barry Davis if he is convicted of killing Santa Rosa Beach resident John Hughes and his girlfriend, Heidi Rhodes of Panama City.

    Davis, 27, was charged Feb. 13 with first-degree premeditated murder in the deaths of the couple, who were reported missing around May 7, 2012, and whose bodies have not been found.

    Elmore said the state believes Davis killed Hughes and Rhodes, that he did it with robbery as a motive and that Rhodes’ killing was seen by another person.

    All of those factors are considered “aggravators” in a court of law and can be used to argue for a death sentence.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime...davis-1.121056
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    Murder trial to begin in case of missing couple

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — There has been no sign of John Hughes and Heidi Rhodes since they disappeared May 7, 2012, and authorities have come to believe they won’t be seen again, dead or alive.

    They believe Barry Davis used his friendship with Hughes to secure an invitation into his home in south Walton County. Once inside, he first killed Hughes and then Rhodes, a Panama City Beach resident Hughes was dating, according to law enforcement.

    When Davis goes on trial Monday in DeFuniak Springs for first-degree murder, prosecutor Bobby Elmore likely will tell jurors that Davis burned the bodies of his victims, and use testimony or previous statements from Davis’ ex-girlfriend to bolster his case.

    Elmore declined to discuss specifics of his trial strategy last week, but 1st Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Eddins said at the time Davis was charged with murder in 2013 that he was confident his office would obtain a guilty verdict in a no-body trial.

    If Davis is found guilty of the two murders, the state intends to seek the death penalty.

    Tiffani Steward was identified as Davis’ girlfriend at a news conference held to announce his arrest. She provided statements that helped the Walton County Sheriff’s Office wrap up a long, arduous investigation, according to Sheriff Mike Adkinson.

    After Davis was arrested on unrelated drug charges, investigators were able to convince Steward to tell them she’d seen Hughes and Rhodes murdered, Adkinson said at the news conference.

    Adkinson said part of the difficulty with building a case against Davis was the reluctance of witnesses to speak against him.

    “Truly, I can tell you, Davis struck fear in the hearts of these people,” he said.

    Steward told authorities she and Davis had been invited to dinner at Hughes’ home May 7, 2012, and she knew Davis was plotting a robbery, according to an affidavit filed at the time of Davis’ arrest.

    Steward said she and Rhodes went to run an errand and returned to find Hughes lying on the floor. She said she then watched Davis strangle Rhodes into unconsciousness.

    Steward told officers she’d seen Davis tie his incapacitated victims with duct tape and submerge their heads in a bathtub.

    Later, she said, Davis told her he had burned the bodies.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....469699?page=0
    "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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    Murder trial jury selection wrapping up

    Of about 600 people summoned to the trial of Barry Davis, attorneys have whittled down the final group.

    In closed-door interviews with batches of six jurors at a time Tuesday in the Walton County Courthouse, state prosecutors and defense attorneys approached an agreement on the 12 jurors and two alternates who will decide the fate of the 29-year-old Davis. He faces the death penalty if convicted at trial.

    Davis was charged Feb. 13, 2013, with first-degree premeditated murder in the deaths of Santa Rosa Beach resident 49-year-old John Hughes and his girlfriend, 41-year-old Heidi Rhodes of Panama City, who were reported missing in May of the prior year. A close acquaintance of Davis told authorities that, after a robbery attempt, she watched as Davis submerged the heads of the incapacitated couple in a bathtub. However, their bodies were never found.

    Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells called for the 600 potential jurors, an unusually large number, according to criminal court officials. Opening arguments were expected to take place at some point Wednesday, but juror negotiations continued as Tuesday came to a close.

    Davis previously was acquitted in September 2012 of stealing and selling Hughes’ 2008 Corvette. The trial took place months before he was charged with the deaths of Hughes and Rhodes. The defense relied on Davis’ statement to police that Hughes had traveled to Orlando a few hours ahead of him and was present, although hidden, when the sale took place. The transaction took place four days after Hughes and Rhodes were reported missing.

    Following the trial, the Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office decided not to prosecute Davis on a burglary charge stemming from the discovery of many of Hughes’ home furnishings in his possession. Instead, they settled on the painstaking task of developing a murder case against him.

    Authorities arrested Davis in February 2013 and labeled him a “cold-blooded, calculated murderer,” said Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson. Davis was in the Okaloosa County Jail on drug charges and transferred to the Walton County Jail.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime...ng-up-1.471055
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    Jury selection slows start of Davis murder trial

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Delays in selecting a jury have pushed the start of the first-degree murder trial of Barry Davis back until this morning.

    Prosecuting attorney Bobby Elmore had surmised the trial would be ready to go by mid-day Tuesday, but a second pool of potential jurors had to be brought in Wednesday when he and the Davis defense team couldn’t agree on the 14 candidates needed to fill the jury box.

    Walton County Circuit Court Judge Kelvin Wells told the second group of potential jurors that he expected the Davis trial to go “three to four weeks,” and warned them that it could include a death penalty phase.

    Davis is charged in a 15-count indictment with killing John Hughes of Seagrove Beach and Heidi Rhodes of Panama City Beach on May 7, 2012.

    Authorities say Davis was invited in to Hughes’ home on Arbor Lane for dinner when he attacked the pair, incapacitated them and placed their heads in a bathtub full of water.

    The other charges against him are theft-related. It is alleged he stole most of Hughes’ household goods and cashed checks for thousands of dollars.

    If the jury finds Davis guilty, it will be asked to listen to more testimony as Elmore and Davis’ attorneys argue for and against the death sentence.

    The 14 jurors selected Wednesday will include two alternates.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....471664?page=0
    "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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    Murder trial: Missing man’s signature forged, family says

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Checks signed after the disappearance of John “Greg” Hughes were penned by a suspicious hand, family members testified Friday.

    Barry Davis, 34, is currently charged with several offenses including the deaths of Hughes, of Santa Rosa Beach, and his girlfriend Heidi Rhodes, of Panama City Beach. The two were reported missing about two years ago. However, neither have been seen or heard from since May 7, 2012, the date prosecutors said they were killed at Hughes’ home by Davis.

    During the second full day of the double murder trial, Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore called family members of Hughes to the stand to testify three checks written out to Davis for “moving expenses” and signed by Hughes after his disappearance appeared to be forged.

    “That is not my brother’s signature,” said Amy Hughes, his sister. “He wrote in a more block style. There are loops in the J and G.”

    Amy Hughes said John Hughes had been receiving disability checks and got a large settlement after an injury on a construction site. The incident left him not only fairly wealthy but also with a permanent disability to his writing hand. From then on he signed his name “J G H,” for brevity, family members testified.

    Both sides quarreled over whether jurors should be able to hear the testimony. The jury was removed from the courtroom for their discussions. Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos argued Amy Hughes had not seen her brother’s signature for four years before his disappearance and had only actually seen him sign a check a handful of times.

    “She said she saw (Hughes) sign about 20 to 30 documents over 17 years,” Kypreos said. “Maybe something more frequent would make someone more familiar with the changes in the signature.”

    However, Amy Hughes said the signatures on the three checks, written for around $4,000 each to Davis, were consistently different from Hughes’ writing style she’d seen since childhood. And Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells allowed jurors to hear the testimony for a large part of Friday’s proceedings.

    Despite not having any bodies, Elmore said he intends to introduce a series of witnesses in the course of the remaining trial, which is expected to encompass more than three weeks. During those testimonies, Elmore plans to have Tiffani Steward, Davis’ girlfriend, testify to seeing Davis submerge both victims’ heads in a bath tub after rendering each incapacitated. She has also told investigators Davis later said he’d cut up the bodies and burned them.

    Investigators believe Davis intended to kidnap Hughes for a ransom, but Elmore spent much of the morning establishing the date when Hughes and Rhodes went missing and the suspicious appearance of a moving truck at Hughes’ home shortly after.

    Rhodes’ sister initiated the missing person investigation May 24, 2012. Bay County Sheriff’s Office also became involved in the Walton County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, but no one had seen or heard from either since May 7 of that year.

    Hughes’ neighbors said they last spoke with him May 4. Somewhere around a week later, a moving truck appeared at Hughes’ Santa Rosa home at 135 Arbor Lane on multiple occasions. The first instance on May 14, neighbor Patrick Davis approached Barry Davis, who was driving the truck. In the course of their conversation, he asked the whereabouts of Hughes, he said.

    “He said he was in Barbados, and they were going to place his stuff in storage,” Patrick Davis said.

    Barry Davis is charged with 12 other counts in connection with allegedly robbing Hughes’ home after authorities suspect the killings took place. Three other people were assisting in the move, including a young man Patrick Davis said he saw carrying a black, plastic garbage bag from the residence.

    Another of the movers drove a white Chevy Escalade, which belonged to Hughes. But Hughes was nowhere in sight.

    The trial continues Monday. Barry Davis faces the death penalty if convicted of the two counts of first-degree, premeditated murder.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....472671?page=0
    "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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    Murder suspect: Missing couple owed money for drug habit

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — As investigators sought information on the whereabouts of a missing Santa Rosa Beach man and Panama City Beach woman, the man who later would be accused of their murder told officers the two owed money to dangerous creditors.

    Barry Davis, 34, later would be arrested and charged with the deaths of John “Gregory” Hughes and his girlfriend Heidi Rhodes. The couple was reported missing in 2012. However, they were not seen again after May 7 of that year, the last date the couple was heard from by family members.

    During Monday’s portion of the “no body” double murder trial, prosecutors presented audio recordings from their ensuing encounters in June with Davis along their investigation. Former WCSO investigator Steve Sunday said he recorded the interviews without Davis’ knowledge because he was not under arrest at that point. Davis told investigators that Hughes was sought by nefarious characters, to whom he was indebted for his drug habit.

    “He’s always getting into some (expletive),” Davis said on the recording. “He’ll get strung out, say he quit, and then after a few days he’ll be backsliding.”

    Davis told investigators the two men were friends and the last time he saw Hughes was about a week before the first recording. He and a few other people helped Hughes load up a moving truck to get out of town, but where they went after that he didn’t know. However, several neighbors who saw the moving truck said neither Hughes nor Rhodes were there at the time.

    In the latter interview — a phone conversation Davis also wasn’t aware was being recorded — he told WCSO that Hughes had mentioned going on vacation.

    “He said something about Barbados — he was on vacation in Barbados,” Davis told investigators. “And the sad thing is, he told me he was going to quit.”

    In the interviews with Davis were glaring contradictions.

    Davis said he had not spoken with Hughes for about a week before the interviews. During that time, though, Davis cashed three checks written from Hughes for upward of $3,000 apiece. Hughes family testified that the signatures on those checks did not belong to Hughes. To add to that, jurors also saw video of Davis using Hughes’ debit card at several different convenience stores following his disappearance.

    Sunday said as they interviewed Davis he knew of the checks and video surveillance. He didn’t mention that to Davis.

    “I didn’t want to put my cards on the table,” he said.

    Authorities also found some of Hughes’ possessions in a storage unit rented in Davis’ name; and Tiffani Steward, Davis’ girlfriend, was later arrested for dealing in the stolen property of Hughes’ on Craigslist.

    Steward is expected later in the trial to provide the only testimony from the night of the couple’s alleged death.

    Steward has told investigators that she and Davis were invited to Hughes’ Santa Rosa home on May 7. At about 9 p.m. she and Rhodes drove to a grocery store to pick up margarita mix. When they returned Hughes was motionless and bleeding on the floor. Steward said Davis then choked Rhodes until she was unconscious, investigators reported.

    Davis then allegedly bound both their hands and feet with duct tape and submerged their heads in the master bathtub where he left them for some time. Steward said he would later tell her that he’d chopped their bodies into pieces and burned them, WCSO said.

    Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos has cast doubt on Steward’s story since she faced prison time for aiding Davis after the alleged deaths. He has told jurors that several of the state’s witnesses obtained immunity from prosecution by agreeing to testify.

    Steward, at least, could have faced prison for her role in helping Davis cover up the murder and thefts he is accused of, he said.

    Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore spent a large part of the morning attempting to demonstrate to jurors that Hughes and Rhodes had not simply left the country.

    Brian Rhodes, son of Heidi Rhodes, said he spoke with his mother twice a week before the phone calls suddenly halted May 7, the date authorities claim Davis killed the couple. Sunday said cellphone activity dropped off after that date while mail began to pile up in Hughes’ mailbox. No moving companies in the area had leased a truck to either. Border protection authorities also said neither had left the country, Sunday said.

    When investigators arrived at Hughes’ home, they found an accumulation of cleaning supplies near the front door. The rest of the house was barren save for a large pool table.

    “All the rooms were empty,” Sunday said. “It was bare.”

    Davis faces 12 charges of theft and fraud in addition to the murder charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The trial, scheduled for roughly more than three weeks, continues Tuesday.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....473539?page=2
    "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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    Murder prosecution: Cadaver dogs find evidence of human remains

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — The talents and efforts of a couple of dogs with a unique specialty were the topic Monday at the murder trial of Barry Davis.

    Rob Roy and Rosco are cadaver dogs, or more politically correctly, human remains detector dogs. Their owner and trainer, Mary Starnes Saunders, took the stand as the third week of the Davis trial opened to describe work they’d done on behalf of the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.

    “We train the dogs to find the odor of human remains,” Saunders said.

    On Oct. 18, 2012, both dogs were tasked at separate times with sniff testing a Cadillac Escalade that belonged to South Walton County resident John “Greg” Hughes, who had been missing since early that May.

    Prosecuting attorney Bobby Elmore hopes to convince jurors that Davis used the truck to remove Hughes’ body, and the body of Hughes’ girlfriend Hiedi Rhodes, from Hughes’ residence. Elmore theorized the bodies were stored in the Cadillac for as long as two days before Davis disposed of them, likely by burning them.

    Saunders described for the court Monday how her dogs train and how they work. Finally, she testified as to how first Rob Roy and then Roscoe alerted on the Escalade and indicated they’d found the odor of decomposing human remains even though the seats and carpeting in the truck had been removed and the vehicle interior scrubbed clean.

    Saunders was followed on the witness stand by Ken Strutin, an academician who for more than 20 years has studied “what chemicals dogs use to find forensic substances.”

    Strutin described the unbelievable canine sense of smell and discussed how dogs can be faithfully employed to use their noses to find anything from explosives to trace amounts of dried blood to human remains.

    Asked if a trained cadaver dog could detect human remains in a truck, scrubbed clean, that was left sitting in a hidden location for five months, Strutin said yes.

    The prosecution’s case continues this morning. The trial is expected to run through at least this week.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....476920?page=0
    "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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    Prosecutors: Murder defendant Barry Davis forged victim's signature

    By ZACK McDONALD
    The Panama City News Herald

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Outgoing calls from a Santa Rosa Beach man authorities believe was killed and burned continued long after his disappearance, jurors heard Wednesday.

    The last of those calls from John “Gregory” Hughes was intended for Barry Davis, who is charged with his murder and the murder of his girlfriend, Hiedi Rhodes of Panama City Beach.

    Hughes and Rhodes were reported missing about three years ago after May 7, 2012, the date prosecutors say Davis killed them in at Hughes’ home.

    Authorities believe Davis, 34, then burned their bodies to cover his tracks and systematically emptied Hughes’ home while allegedly forging checks as moving payments.

    During Wednesday’s testimony in DeFuniak Springs, jurors learned that calls from Hughes’ phone nearly dropped off completely after May 7, save for a few attempts to contact his bank, his voice mail and his credit card company before a call May 19, 2012, to Davis’ phone number. Outgoing calls ceased altogether after that.

    Prosecutors also tried to reinforce evidence that Davis stole Hughes’ money and possessions after he and Rhodes went missing.

    Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore questioned handwriting analyst Kate Butler for much of the morning. The analyst highlighted several striking similarities among characters from Davis’ known handwriting and three checks the prosecution say he forged after Hughes’ death for up to $3,000 each.

    However, Hughes regularly would allow people to fill out the body of checks for him because a construction accident had left him disabled, according to family members who testified earlier.

    The accident left him with a sizeable settlement and led Hughes to abbreviate his signature to the three letters, “J G H.”

    Butler could neither eliminate nor identify Hughes as the signator of the three checks, and claimed the signature appeared “distorted.” She also could not conclude Davis authored the signature, either.

    Elmore highlighted that of seven examples of Hughes’ signature, none matched those of the three checks.

    Leading up to the trial, investigators asked Davis to provide writing samples of various words containing either J, G or H for analysis. On all the samples, Davis submitted blocked and “unnatural” writing, Butler said. She said Davis willfully changed his natural writing style, and the sample hampered her study.

    “Due to the distorted nature of the exemplars, I was not able to use them in the comparison,” she said.

    Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos asked Butler questions intended to point out that variations occur in a signature over time.

    Kypreos also indicated that he might argue Davis never saw Hughes’ signature. But after a series of objections to a question from Elmore alleging that Davis had control of Hughes’ home and the documents there after killing him, Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells allowed Butler to answer.

    “If someone was in my house, they could gain access to my documents and create a forgery,” Butler said.

    Prosecutors hope to prove Davis killed Hughes to get the money from his injury settlement.

    Davis’ girlfriend, Tiffani Stewart, is expected to testify that she and Davis went to Hughes’ home the night of May 7 for a dinner party, but that Davis had ulterior motives, investigators reported.

    After Stewart and Rhodes returned from an errand, they found Hughes bleeding and motionless on the floor. Stewart told authorities that Davis then strangled Rhodes into unconsciousness and submerged the couple’s heads in a bathtub.

    Davis later told her he burned their remains, Stewart told investigators.

    Davis faces the death penalty if convicted. The trial is expected to continue through next week.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....477807?page=2

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    Prosecution, defense rests in Barry Davis double murder trial

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — First thing Friday, before the jury hearing his case was brought in, Barry Davis, on trial for the 2012 killings of John Gregory Hughes and Hiedi Rhodes, requested and received permission to speak to Circuit Court Judge Kelvin Wells.

    Then, he unloaded on his attorney, Spiro Kypreos.

    “Yesterday, when it was time for my lawyer to go up and cross-examine” key witness and Davis’ ex-girlfriend Tiffani Steward, “my lawyer was not prepared,” Davis said. “He stumbled around looking for papers. … It was not fair to me. … My lawyer was ineffective yesterday.”

    Speaking calmly but firmly, Wells let Davis know he wasn’t about to take a drastic action three weeks into a capital case in which the death penalty could come into play.

    “I understand what your complaint is, but you didn’t go to law school. Mr. Kypreos has been handling this type of case for years,” Wells said. “At this point, for the record, I can’t find Mr. Kypreos has been ineffective.”

    Friday’s testimonies went more smoothly than Thursday’s. The previous day’s proceedings were marred by sniping, objections and frequent bench conferences that had bogged down the flow of the trial.

    Late Friday morning, Prosecuting Attorney Bobby Elmore released Steward, who had spent about 10 hours on the witness stand. After calling two more witnesses, the prosecution rested its case at just before 4:30 p.m. Friday.

    Elmore’s final witness was FBI special agent Justin Fleck, who testified to using technology that allowed him to track, with some degree of certainty, calls, texts, tweets and just about any other cellphone communication using the towers that allow those communications to occur. Elmore elicited from the testimony a timeline that tracked Davis’ movements on the day Rhodes and Hughes were killed and for the days afterward.

    The defense called its first and only witness late in the day. Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson discussed his role as the first law enforcement officer on the scene when Hughes’ missing Cadillac Escalade was discovered.

    The defense rested its case after Adkinson left the stand. Closing arguments will begin Monday at 8:30 a.m.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime....478936?page=1

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    Barry Davis found guilty in double murder of area couple

    DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Jurors have found a Walton County man guilty of killing a couple to further a marijuana growing operation.

    He now faces the death sentence when a penalty phase commences.

    After three weeks of testimony and a full day of closing arguments, jurors found Barry Davis Jr., 34, guilty Monday in a “no body” murder trial after a little more than two hours of deliberation. Davis also was found guilty of numerous other charges related to the deaths of John “Gregory” Hughes, of Santa Rosa Beach, and Hiedi Rhodes, of Panama City Beach, neither of whom have been seen or heard from since May 7, 2012.

    Tiffani Steward, girlfriend and mother of Davis’ child, said she felt “relief” as the verdict was being read. Steward testified she was present the night of the slayings.

    “I just hope the family will finally get closure, and I will get closure myself,” she said.

    Prosecutor Bobby Elmore faced what seemed like an uphill battle since the bodies of neither Hughes nor Rhodes were ever recovered.

    Elmore used bank account records, cellphone records and the lack of contact with friends and family to argue Davis killed the couple. Many family members were present Monday for closing arguments in the trial of Davis when Elmore made a final push to convince jurors that Davis killed the couple and robbed Hughes’ home “down to the very last salt shaker” in order to have enough money to assemble a marijuana growing business.

    http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime...ouple-1.479781

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