FAYETTEVILLE -- John Christopher Davis admitted Friday in Washington County Circuit Court he helped beat his wife to death.
Davis told police he killed Victoria Annabeth Davis because she wanted a divorce, according to the police log. Davis said he "shot her up with dope" according to the log from Aug. 19, 2015.
Plea bargain
A negotiated agreement between a criminal defendant and a prosecutor in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to some crimes in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges or some other benefit to the defendant. A defendant must uphold his or her end of the deal, such as testifying against a co-defendant or the plea bargain may be revoked.
Source: uslegal.com
Fayetteville police said Davis and four others held Victoria Davis, 24, captive at her house at 433 S. Hill Ave. for hours and beat and tortured her.
Davis, 29, pleaded guilty Friday to being an accomplice to first-degree murder.
Prosecutor Matt Durrett explained they beat Victoria Davis with a baseball bat, resulting in her death. Judge Mark Lindsay asked Davis if that's what happened and he said it was.
Durrett said he wouldn't discuss details of the plea agreement because the other defendants are awaiting trial.
Davis was sentenced to 37 years in at the Arkansas Department of Correction. He was scheduled for trial beginning Monday. He could have faced life in prison if he was found guilty by a jury. Prosecutors waived the death penalty after learning Davis has a low IQ.
John Davis' attorneys filed a motion in June seeking to suppress several statements Davis made to police. Kent McLemore and Robby Golden contended Davis wasn't read his rights and wasn't of sound mind to understand his right against self-incrimination because of an intellectual disability and the stress of the situation.
Lacy Willett Matthews, a forensic psychologist at the Arkansas State Hospital, examined Davis in early October. Matthews noted Davis has an IQ of 71, indicating mild intellectual disability, but said he appeared to be competent.
Doctors at the State Hospital said in February that Davis was mentally fit to be tried. They said he doesn't suffer from a mental disease and has the capacity to understand the proceedings and assist in his defense. Davis chose not to participate in the assessment to determine his mental state at the time of the killing, based on the advice of his attorney, according to the report. He also declined to give doctors an account of the incident.
The other defendants are Mark Edward Chumley, 48; Rebecca Lloyd, 38; Christopher Lee Treat, 32; and Desire Amber Treat, 31. All are charged with accomplice to capital murder. All are being held without bond at the Washington County Detention Center.
John Davis was married to Victoria Davis since at least 2012, according to police. The Treats are married. Chumley was the Davises' roommate, and Lloyd was Chumley's girlfriend, police records show. Christopher Treat is listed in police documents as a friend of John Davis.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Chumley. Grounds for the request are because the killing was done to prevent an arrest and in an especially depraved or cruel manner, according to the notice.
"She was beaten repeatedly. She was hooked up to a battery charger. She essentially bled to death from the beating she took. She was beaten with a baseball bat. She was raped with a baseball bat," Durrett told a judge at a previous hearing. "Those are the acts we allege constitute evidence of disregard for human life."
Durrett said he hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty against the remaining defendants.
Christopher Treat's attorneys filed a motion last year arguing testing determined he has an IQ of 68 and federal law prohibits a death sentence for offenders who are intellectually disabled at the time of committing capital murder.
Chumley called police after Victoria Davis died and gave his phone to Davis who told detectives he and other people kept his wife captive and beat her for several hours before destroying evidence from the crime scene, according to police.
Chumley and Christopher Treat admitted to taking part in the slaying, police said in preliminary reports. Davis, Chumley and Treat said Desire Treat also was involved, police said.
Lloyd told police she knew about the crime beforehand, participated in beating Davis and helped the others "in the commission of the crime and helping them dispose of evidence of the crime afterwards," according to an arrest report.
NW News on 12/02/2017