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273 days in jail, then charges dropped

The State Attorney's Office says it can't go forward with the murder charges, but police aren't giving up.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published June 1, 2006

TAMPA - Itiba Davis says he spent the early hours of July 4, 2005, with his ill girlfriend, comforting her through uneasy sleep at their Clair Mel City home and then by her hospital bed after she suffered a miscarriage.

Tampa police thought he rang in the holiday more raucously: They pinned him as the triggerman in a fatal shooting outside Club Tropix at 810 E Skagway Ave.

Late Tuesday, after Davis spent 273 days in jail before getting freed without having to post bail, prosecutors took a significant step toward believing the man with a head full of skinny dreadlocks and a voice with an island lilt. The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office dropped the first-degree murder charges against 22-year-old Davis.

But law enforcement authorities refuse to dismiss Davis as a suspect.

"I don't really know how to feel," said Davis, who had no previous arrest history. "I ain't even really excited. It probably hasn't hit me yet."

Sitting Wednesday in the Harbour Island law office of his attorney, Daniel Fernandez, Davis reflected on the tumultuous nine months since his August arrest for the death of 25-year-old Rodney "Price" Valery.

Both men were natives of St. Croix, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. But Davis, who relocated to the bay area in August 2003, said he barely knew of Valery or his history of arrests for aggravated assault and marijuana possession.

Davis said he learned of Valery's death from TV news, which he watched from his girlfriend's room at Tampa General Hospital.

According to police, Valery and other nightclub patrons spilled into the parking lot of the Caribbean hangout about 3 a.m. Two black men approached him; one man shot Valery three times with a .45-caliber handgun and ran away.

Witnesses said the shooter was a young guy with dreadlocks.

Within weeks, Tampa police said two people identified Davis as the shooter from a photo lineup and another witness placed him at the crime scene.

But authorities also knew that Davis, after hearing that police were looking for him, willingly turned himself in for an interview and passed a polygraph test.

And shortly after Davis' arrest, one of the detectives on the case expressed concern to a colleague that the wrong person may have been arrested. That colleague, an investigator for the State Attorney's Office, outlined the concerns in an Aug. 31 memo to prosecutors.

Fernandez said he initially hesitated to involve himself in the case because he already was handling another first-degree murder. Then he visited Davis in jail.

"I left feeling pretty sick," the defense attorney said. In his gut, Fernandez believed "the wrong guy was sitting in jail on a very serious charge."

Fernandez and his investigators soon were spending nights and weekends going door-to-door, looking for witnesses to the shooting.

What they learned: Two of the people who allegedly told authorities they saw Davis shoot Valery now said they hadn't seen him at the club that morning. Another woman said Davis merely resembled the shooter but was not actually the bad guy. She said she asked to see more pictures, but the detective insisted the shooter was in that photo lineup.

Police Maj. George McNamara, who now heads the criminal investigations division but did not at the outset of the case, said detectives would not administer a photo lineup as the witness claimed. Nor did they pressure witnesses into saying things that supported their theory of the crime, he said.

"We're only here to seek the truth, and that's what we're still attempting to do in this case," he said.

McNamara said police will investigate why the witnesses recanted their statements.

There were early signs that the case against Davis was heading south. In October, Circuit Judge Denise Pomponio allowed Davis to post bail and remain on house arrest, an unusual step for a defendant facing a first-degree murder charge.

Davis, who lost his job with Time Warner Communications after his initial arrest, forfeited his freedom when he admitted a month later to smoking marijuana.

Then, on May 17, Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez ruled that Davis should be released from jail on his own recognizance. Even prosecutors did not object.

The message was clear: Find better evidence, or get rid of this case.

Assistant State Attorney Donna Hanes officially dropped the charges Tuesday. Does she still think Davis killed Valery?

"You know, that's really not relevant," she said. "What's relevant is, do we have sufficient evidence to go forward."

Prosecutors could still pursue murder charges against Davis because double jeopardy isn't an issue until a case goes to trial. Convicting someone else for the crime will be more difficult, but Hanes said it could still happen.

McNamara said his department doesn't have any new suspects.

Davis "is still very much a person of interest for us," he said. He believes there are additional witnesses to the shooting and asks for them to come forward.

Fernandez wants law enforcement to leave his client alone.

"To suggest that they're still looking at him is outrageous," he said. "Why can't they just admit that they were wrong and move on?"

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 1, 2006, 04:42:41]