Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Details of killing caught on tape

Jurors view a videotape recorded during a friend's visit to the suspect in jail.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published March 21, 2007

In a videotaped jail visitation, Eric G. Davis recounted to a friend that he first shot his wife in the arm.

"Then I just said (expletive) it. I just kept going," Davis is heard saying in the tape, which was played for jurors Tuesday during Davis' first-degree murder trial.

On the tape, Davis adds that he put the "last two bullets in her head as she was trying to open the ... door."

Davis, 28, stands accused of shooting Krystal Lee Davis, 26, in March 2006 in their duplex on Maple Way Street in Safety Harbor.

The couple lived there with four children: two she had from a previous marriage and two they had together.

Witness Robin Cannady told investigators that the night of the killing, Eric Davis came to her home with a group of friends she had been drinking with earlier that night.

Someone in that group told Cannady that they had picked up Krystal Davis and taken her home, and that Eric Davis went inside with her. While waiting for Davis outside his home, the rest of the group heard gunshots, and he came out alone. When he arrived at Cannady's home, he had blood on his shoes, authorities said.

Davis initially told investigators he shot her because he suspected her of cheating.

On the last day of testimony at Davis' trial, Assistant State Attorney Robin Augello showed jurors videotapes of two visits between Davis and longtime friend Vicki Hendry, 34, of Clearwater.

Arguing in part that Davis is mentally ill, defense attorney Edward Liebling asked Hendry whether she knew that Davis was trying to get help for his conditions.

"No, sir, not that I'm aware of," answered Hendry, who is caring for the Davises' two younger children, ages 3 and 5.

Defense attorneys put psychologist Sidney J. Merin on the witness stand.

Merin testified that Davis' unstable upbringing included physical abuse inflicted on him by his parents, who eventually did not play a role in his life. He said Davis' history of mental illness included a diagnosis of depression when he was 15.

Among his own diagnoses, Merin said Davis has bipolar disorder of the manic phase, impulse control disorder and that his long-term substance abuse may have been resulted from his rough upbringing.

One behavior resulting from the mental illnesses is overreacting to a perceived slight, defense attorneys argue.

In the videotape, Davis said he hated his wife partly because she abused the children.

"That's why I don't have any remorse for what I've done," he says. "I know it sounds messed up."

Davis' mental disorders are also responsible for various explanations he has given for his actions on the night of the shooting, Merin said.

Statements Davis has made that in some instances appear to be show premeditation can't be relied upon, defense attorneys argue.

"The main thrust of the doctor's testimony is you can't believe anything (Davis) says," defense attorney Serbo Simeoni said during a recess in the trial.

Assistant State Attorney Brian Daniels asked Merin about what Davis told the psychologist about the shooting.

"Did he tell you that he had the gun on his lap, thinking?" Daniels asked.

"Ask him again in a week and he may give you a different story," Merin said.

Daniels noted that Davis shot his wife, reloaded the gun bullet by bullet and shot her again as she was trying to open the door.

"Would that suggest to you that Mr. Davis had more of an opportunity to reflect on what he was doing?" Daniels asked.

"We don't know whether he was reflecting or this behavior was simply automatic," Merin said.

Daniels asked Merin what he would have thought if he knew Davis had told a prisoner in jail, "I'm trying to get to the mental hospital so I can do 10 years."

Said Merin, "That would have been interesting to know but it would have been (just) another factor."

Closing arguments are expected today.

[Last modified March 20, 2007, 21:26:19]