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Stray bullet finds victim in his sleep

A shot fired during a home invasion kills a 70-year-old man, who was resting for his paper route after a graduation party.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published May 21, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — Robert Lee Davis celebrated his granddaughter’s high school graduation before going to bed Saturday.

As the 70-year-old “gentle giant’’ slept, a bullet came crashing through his ceiling and took his life.

Earlier, at a graduation party, Davis had told his family he was going home early to sleep a bit before going to work around 12:15 a.m., delivering the St. Petersburg Times. He left about 9 p.m.

A little after 11 p.m. two masked men, one with a gun, pushed into the apartment above Davis’ at 4642 19th Ave. S.

Anthony Kelly said he had been playing a game while his pregnant wife, Ja’Nia Talbert, 21, was bathing their three girls — two 4-year-olds and one 2-year-old.

There was a knock on the door. He opened it.

“There was a dude with a mask rushing in. He was telling me to get down, 'where’s the money at?’” Kelly said.
Kelly, 21, said he and the man stumbled backward over a table, onto the couch and wrestled. The other robber guarded the door.

“When the gun went off, everything happened so quick,’’ Kelly said.

The robbers ran off. They were still at large Sunday night.

Officers investigating the home invasion knocked on Davis’ door and windows. When he did not answer, St. Petersburg police Sgt. Mike Puetz said, they forced the door open and found him.

Davis, 70, had lived at the apartment — a house converted into two apartments — alone for two years. His wife, Antoinette Davis, also 70, moved to Kentucky to live with a son whose legs were amputated.

Davis was an usher and janitor at Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church. He was a member of the Shining Light Lodge. He delivered papers in St. Pete Beach seven nights a week.

When he arrived home in the mornings, he would feed bread to the birds and throw a newspaper into the yard of one of his neighbors, Bertha Sheppard.

On Sundays, Sheppard, 86, brought him “soul food.’’

“He was a quiet old man,’’ said Sheppard. “He didn’t bother nobody.’’

Anthony Kelly knew Davis through his 51-year-old mother, Ida Kelly, who also delivers the Times in St. Pete Beach.
Ida Kelly said Davis recommended the vacant apartment above his as a good place for Anthony Kelly to start out with his young family.

“He was a really nice man,’’ Anthony Kelly said. “He would help you even if it would hurt him.’’

Davis’ week had been full of celebration. Much of his family was in town to see his granddaughter, Tiara Spann, 18, graduate from St. Petersburg High School.

On Wednesday, Davis had cooked a turkey dinner for Spann, the first of his 10 grandchildren to graduate.

The celebration carried over to the party Saturday. Antoinette Davis said her husband told her he needed to get some sleep before work because he had worked Friday night and cooked all day at the lodge Saturday.

“I told him I was leaving in the morning,’’ Antoinette Davis recalled. “He said, “Please, don’t go.’”

Mary Brown, Davis’ 34-year-old daughter was collecting her father’s belongings from the apartment Sunday evening.

“It’s sad because it’s senseless,’’ she said

“I’m still in disbelief.’’

[Last modified May 21, 2006, 22:19:55]