48 Hours Mystery: Dennis Davis Case

I had the privelege of defending a client, Dennis Davis, this year in a jury trial that was covered by CBS's 48 Hours Mystery.  Mr. Davis was charged with murder--a cold case that stemmed from a murder committed in Austin in 1985.  Despite having a suspect who fit the description given by a witness, a description that did not match Mr. Davis, the investigation never resulted in charges being filed against that suspect. There may have been several reasons for this, but one of the main reasons, perhaps, was because that original suspect was convicted a few months later of sexual assault and sent to prison for a lengthy sentence. Another factor may have been that the lead investigator became ill with cancer and ran out of time to finish investigating the case. Mr. Davis, who knew the victim, as did the original suspect, became a target of a cold-case investigation after he reportedly made an ambiguous statement to his ex-wife that seemed to indicate that he felt guilty about something from his past. In 2007 the cold case unit investigator tracked down an ex-girlfriend of Mr. Davis, who, for the first time, claimed that Mr. Davis had made an incrimiating statement to her as well. These allegations and other circumstantial evidence led to a conviction by the jury. The law of Texas, which the judge followed, did not allow me to present evidence against the original suspect even though the evidence against him was almost as compelling as the evidence against Mr. Davis.

Although the trial lasted only a week, it was a long difficult case from the time I was retained until the final verdict. A witness, a neighbor to the victim, had seen a man with a weapon about an hour prior to the murder lurking around the apartment complex. The neighbor told the police that he had seen this man--a man who looked completely different from Mr. Davis, with a baseball bat in his hands, muttering something, and in a state of rage.  This neighbor, who had moved out of Austin (and was tracked down by my investigator) was too afraid to come testify at the trial, fearing that if Mr. Davis were acquitted, he might then be charged with the crime himself. This witness had literally gone into hiding and could not be served with a subpoena to force his testimony at trial. I was able to introduce a statement this neighbor made to the police shortly after the murder, but it did not have the impact that his live testimony would have had. Had he testified that the man on trial, Mr. Davis, looked nothing like the man he had seen, I believe the outcome of the trial may very well have been different.

CBS's 48 Hours Mystery  crew covered the case and produced a program entitled "Redemption Song." The show gives an excellent short-hand version of the many twists and issues in the case.  Here is the link to the show:  www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7384838n 

(austin criminal lawyer, austin criminal attorney, Austin, Texas)