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Husband convicted in wife's murder

The Safety Harbor man is found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2006 shooting.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published March 22, 2007

Eric Davis made statements, some caught on tape, that he shot his wife at least five times, reloaded the gun and shot her twice more in the back of the head as she reached for the door.

Those actions, prosecutors say, showed that Davis, 28, premeditated the murder of Krystal Lee Davis last March in their Maple Way duplex in Safety Harbor.

But a jury found Davis guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday instead of the first-degree charge prosecutors sought.

Because of the verdict on the lesser charge, Davis now faces 25 years to life in prison instead of a mandatory life sentence without parole.

"It's the jury system at work, Assistant State Attorney Robin Augello said after the verdict. "... The system will work at sentencing."

Defense attorneys argued that Davis is mentally ill and that his statements that appeared to show premeditation were not reliable.

"The jury took great consideration of the evidence," defense attorney Edward Liebling said. Jurors "apparently decided he did not act in premeditation."

During closing arguments, Augello walked jurors through a series of statements and actions Davis made that she said proved he intended to kill her.

" 'I went in there in to cast her death certificate,' " Augello quoted Davis as saying. "Ladies and gentlemen, those are the words of that man."

Davis had not been living with his wife but on the night of the murder he lured her into the house by making her believe they were going to have sex, Augello said.

Davis went to a file cabinet, retrieved a gun from a bag and began the series of shots, striking her first when her back was to him.

"Why were those facts important?" asked Augello. "Certainly it took some reflection to get from point A to point B to point C."

Augello argued that going back to the house and trying to conceal the crime showed Davis' ability to plot.

The prosecutor said Davis threatened friends who waited in a car outside during the shooting so they would not say anything.

Liebling emphasized that his prime expert, psychologist Sidney J. Merin, was credible in part because he typically testifies for prosecutors.

Merin testified that Davis had a history of physical abuse as a child at the hands of his parents.

Merin diagnosed Davis with, among other things, bipolar disorder of the manic phase and impulse control disorder.

Because of his mental illness, Davis could have said whatever came to mind to explain how he carried out the shooting and his motives, Merin said.

Consequently, his statements could not be relied upon as true, Liebling argued.

For example, Liebling said that even though Davis said he shot his wife twice in the back of the head at the end of the attack, evidence showed that she was struck by fragments of bullets instead of being hit directly.

Liebling told jurors that detectives charged Davis with first-degree murder after a medical examiner told them that a bullet to the head was the fatal shot, something that Liebling said was proven false during testimony.

"It's not true," Liebling told jurors about Davis shooting Krysal in the back of the head. "It never happened."

During rebuttal, Augello said the detectives chose first-degree murder because of the number of shots Davis fired into Krystal, not whether he shot her on the head last.

"If it's this number of gun-shots to this person, it's premeditated," Augello said.

The family of Krystal Davis, 26, was bothered that Davis had portrayed her in his statements as a bad mother who physically abused her children.

"She was leaving him to give her kids a better life," said her sister, Karina Wilson of Tampa.

Krystal's two younger children - ages 3 and 5 - live with Vicki Hendry, a longtime friend of Eric Davis. The two older children - aged 9 and 8 - live with Krystal's grandmother.

"That was not who she was at all," said Krystal's mother, Vikki Pallonetti of Palm Harbor.

"She was a beautiful young woman. She loved her children."

[Last modified March 22, 2007, 09:59:35]