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Canton panel must decide if he meant to kill Jessie Marie Davis last June
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
CANTON: It's all about what happened inside the bedroom of Jessie Marie Davis.
It was that way when she was reported missing last June.
And it's still that way today as jurors deliberate in the murder trial of her lover, Bobby Cutts Jr.
In closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorneys said Cutts should be acquitted of aggravated murder. They argued that there is no evidence that Cutts planned to kill Davis and her unborn child.
They want jurors to believe Cutts' emotional testimony in which he said he killed Davis with his elbow during a struggle, but meant her no harm.
Stark County prosecutors contend that it doesn't matter what Cutts says about his confrontation with Davis in her bedroom. They say he can't be believed.
''It's not about whether he went there with the idea to commit murder. It's what happened when he got there,'' Assistant Prosecutor Dennis Barr told jurors during closing arguments. ''The only reasonable explanation for the evidence that exists is that Bobby Cutts
strangled Jessie.''
Defense attorney Fernando Mack told the jury not to be consumed with Cutts' actions after Davis died on June 14. He said Cutts' decision to take the body, dump it in a Summit County park and remain silent for nine days before leading police to the body has nothing to do with what occurred inside her Lake Township home.
''It doesn't come close,'' he said.
Jurors deliberated about three hours Tuesday without announcing a verdict. They are considering charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, abuse of a corpse and child endangering. Along with the aggravated murder charges are specifications for a potential death sentence.
Jury sequestered
Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. took more than two hours to read instructions on the law to the jury before the panel began deliberations. They spent the night sequestered in a hotel and were to resume at 8:30 this morning.
During a hearing earlier Tuesday, the judge denied a defense request to have jurors consider charges of involuntary or voluntary manslaughter, which could mean far less time in prison. Jurors can consider a lesser charge of murder, a conviction that brings a life sentence but no possible death sentence.
Davis, 26, was nine months pregnant when she was reported missing on June 15. Cutts, the father of her son and her unborn child, was the focus of a police investigation that ended on June 23 with him guiding police to the Hampton Hills Metro Park where the remains of Davis and her fetus were.
Cutts was arrested that day. A co-defendant and friend, Myisha Ferrell, turned herself in the following day. She was charged with obstructing justice and abuse of a corpse. In November, Ferrell, 30, accepted a plea deal in which she promised to testify against Cutts in exchange for potentially shaving about five years off of a maximum six-year term. That plea was never criticized by Cutts' defense lawyers.
Ferrell said that after Cutts told her ''something bad'' happened to Davis and motioned that she was in the back of his pickup truck, he gestured with his bent forearm across his chest in explaining how Davis died.
Prosecutors say the gesture was indicative of a strangling, but they offered no other evidence. A medical examiner said it was possible that Davis was strangled, but no definitive cause could be determined because of the extent of decomposition.
Defense attorneys argue the arm gesture is consistent with Cutts' contention that he threw an elbow backward into Davis' throat, knocking her down and leaving her unable to breath. Cutts said he attempted CPR and used bleach in an effort to rouse Davis. Prosecutors theorize the bleach was used to cover up blood, perhaps from Cutts himself, who was bitten by Davis.
Cutts' side of the story
Cutts, 30, testified that he didn't go to the home to kill Davis. He was there at about 5:45 a.m. on June 14 to pick up their son for a daylong visit, and he was frustrated when Davis refused to quickly get the child ready.
He said Davis criticized him for going out the night before and that she bit his finger when he picked his nose and put his finger near her face.
As he went to leave, Cutts said Davis grabbed him. He said he swung backward with his elbow, hit her in the throat and she died.
Cutts claims he panicked, rolled Davis in a comforter and left the home. He said his son, 2-year-old Blake, was sleeping and he didn't want the boy to find his mother dead. Cutts said he intended to return with Ferrell and have her watch Blake while he explained his conduct.
On the way back to Davis' home, Cutts said he realized he moved the body, didn't think anyone would believe what happened and decided to dump the body. He admitted lying to authorities for nine days.
Barr said Cutts only took police to the body when told that phone records placed him in Richfield the morning of June 14 when he originally told police he was home in Plain Township. He said Cutts did not strike Davis as he claimed on the witness stand Monday.
Barr said, as Ferrell intimated in her testimony, that Cutts used a choke-hold maneuver to kill Davis. It is a process, he said, that takes several minutes and requires prior calculation. He said Cutts was suffering money woes and wanted to end Davis' life and the life of her fetus, which Cutts fathered.
''His reaction is the reaction of a person who committed a crime and is trying to cover it up and trying to get away with it,'' he said.
Barr said the only reason there's no physical evidence of a strangulation is because Cutts allowed Davis' body to remain in the park for nine days. An autopsy was unable to determine how Jessie and her unborn child died.
''He just went about his life for nine days, every day knowing Jessie and baby Chloe were up there rotting away, destroying the evidence,'' Barr said.
Cause of death
Barr scoffed at Cutts' testimony that he struck Davis with an elbow. He said the 6-foot-tall Cutts couldn't have struck the 5-foot-4 Davis the way he said. He said such an elbow blow could not cause an instantaneous death.
Barr said Cutts strangled Davis and he tried to conceal his crime with silence, until it appeared he would be caught.
''He knew the jig was up so he tried to make himself look better,'' Barr said.
Mack told jurors that if Cutts planned to kill Davis, he wouldn't have involved Ferrell, and he would have remained silent forever.
''People who are murderers don't take authorities to the body. His conscience ate away at him. He saw what that family was going through and he made a wrong decision a right decision,'' Mack said.
Mack and fellow attorney Carolyn Kaye Ranke said prosecutors want to use emotion to inflame jurors so they would ignore the lack of evidence of aggravated murder. For example, they were critical of prosecutors for calling four of Cutts' former lovers to testify, mischaracterizing his supposed financial problems, showing crime scene photos to jurors and pointing to his reluctance to tell authorities sooner about the location of the remains.
''Are you thoroughly outraged yet?'' Mack asked jurors. ''Guess what? None of that tells you whether or not aggravated murder was committed on the morning of June 14.''
Mack said prosecutors are ''hiding underneath all these women, hiding behind Blake and hiding behind everything Bobby did after he left the home. That's where they want you to focus.''
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
CANTON: It's all about what happened inside the bedroom of Jessie Marie Davis.
Get the full article here.
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