Spokane7
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July 28, 2011 in City
Inmate hopes for freedom, new relationship with son
‘I’m not going to hold my breath’
From the visitation room at the Spokane County Jail, Jeramie R. Davis talks about the recent break in his case where DNA on a murder weapon was matched to a different man. Davis, 37, is hopeful the new evidence will prove he was wrongly convicted of murder.
(Full-size photo)
A man who has spent more than three years in prison for a murder he maintains he didn’t commit suddenly has hope he might be released and reunited with his son.
Jeramie R. Davis, 37, is serving a 40-year sentence for first-degree murder and second-degree burglary in connection with the June 17, 2007, bludgeoning death of a 74-year-old porn shop owner, John Gordon Allen Jr. Now, forensic evidence has led to the arrest of another suspect in the case, Julio R. Davila, 45.
Authorities are still investigating, including the possibility Davis and Davila acted together, but Davis said he is cautiously optimistic his murder conviction will be vacated in light of the new arrest.
“If I can get put in here so easily, with so little, (and) get convicted of this, then yeah, I’m hopeful, but until that judge says in the open court of law that I’m innocent, I’m not going to hold my breath,” he said. “At this point, I’m confident that the detectives and the prosecutors are on the right track.”
Davis has always maintained his innocence in Allen’s murder, as has his family.
“They know I’m innocent,” he said. “I knew the Lord one day would shine a light on that.”
His sister, Tina Jackson, has always been on his side, but the two haven’t spoken in the past few years.
“I don’t know what to think right now,” Jackson said tearfully on Wednesday after learning of the new arrest. “I just want him to be exonerated. I knew all along he didn’t do it. I told them. I told them.”
Police recently connected DNA evidence collected from the murder weapon, a baseball bat, with Davila after his DNA was collected for an unrelated felony conviction. In addition, a palm print found at the scene belongs to Davila, according to police. He was arrested July 11 and booked into Spokane County Jail for first- and second-degree murder.
Davis and Davila have both said they don’t know each other.
Meanwhile, Davis was transferred from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla to Spokane County Jail.
“As far as Jeramie Davis goes, we’re kind of at the mercy of the state,” said Davis’ public defender, Jeffrey Leslie. “I really hope they end up doing the right thing.”
Clearing Davis of the murder conviction would take an agreement by all parties involved, including the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office, his defense attorney and police, Leslie said.
“Legally speaking, this is very unusual,” he said. “The court doesn’t have jurisdiction; it’s gone to the court of appeals, it’s gone through the process.”
He added, though, “If the state believes he didn’t do it, I think they’re going to do something about this. They don’t want to see an innocent person wrongfully convicted.”
From behind the glass of a visitor’s booth at Spokane County Jail, Davis, in a navy blue jail jumpsuit, talked about his desire to build a better relationship with his 3-year-old son, who he has seen just a handful of times.
“I’m happy at the fact that I have a second chance to be a father, hopefully,” he said. “The hard part is that he looks at you and doesn’t know who you are. I think being a father completes my dreams.”
Davis told police when he entered the East Sprague Avenue porn shop, Allen’s Best Buy Adult Bookstore, he found Allen on the ground, but he thought the 74-year-old man was intoxicated and had passed out. Police say Davis stole goods from the store before going to his sister’s house. She suggested the two go check on the store owner in case he was having a medical emergency. It was then, about four hours after discovering the unconscious store owner, that the two realized the man was critically injured and called 911. Allen died of blunt force head trauma the following day.
Davis admitted to stealing merchandise from the store but maintained throughout the investigation he did not harm the owner. He was convicted by a jury in 2008. Davis said his faith in God, his family and a close friend have helped him through the last three years of incarceration.
“There’s a reason everything happens in life,” he said. “The Lord has a purpose. If he was trying to get my attention, he got it.”
Davis, whose criminal history includes felony property crime convictions and one assault conviction, has no infractions since he’s been in prison, where he works in a sign shop, seven hours a day, five days a week. In his down time, he watches television or reads the Bible and books about wrongful convictions, he said.
“I don’t know if I’ve lost faith, but it’s an imperfect system,” he said. “Circumstantial evidence opens the door wide for wrongful convictions. I never have trusted the system 100 percent.”
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Slightlyworried on July 28 at 8:07 a.m.
Maybe Steve “The Cops Never Make Mistakes” Tucker will cancel his tee time today and review the case.
Coffee on July 28 at 9:18 a.m.
Here is the way it may go.
The real murder will do a plea bargain saying that Steve did the murder and he just drove the car. Then Tucker will let him off with a couple of years, it will be a win win for the cops and prosecutors since they will not half to face the embarrassment and public reticule for sending a innocent man up the river.
Good luck Steve you are going to need it.
D Statler on July 28 at 10:16 a.m.
Sometimes stepping up and doing the right thing is a tough choice. Lets hope that Mr. Tucker has the courage to admit mistakes if they were in fact made. Relying on informant testimony is very dangerous.This practice needs to be limited to corraberated evidence only. Tracking the type and number of these deals being made by the prosecutors office will reveal some very scary facts also.Washington state is one of the few that has no regulation on this informant process.How much is three years of this mans life worth? Maybe a deal for time served for the crimes he did admit to right now is in order. Good luck finding real justice on this one.
brianrbreen on July 28 at 10:54 a.m.
@Slightlyworried
I have personal experience with The Innocence Project and can tell you this; In a majority of the cases the Project takes on the staff have to fight tooth and nail with the authorities to have them even begin to take another look at a possible wrongful conviction. That is not the case here. It appears law enforcement identified there may be a problem with the conviction and immediately took the appropriate steps to reinvestigate the case when the new evidence surfaced. Whether or not critical mistakes were made during the initial investigation and prosecution, I don’t know, nor does anyone else in the public at this point and it is something that likely will be addressed later. The important thing now is that steps are taken to insure justice is done, and local law enforcement gives every indication that is exactly what is happening. So good on them! It is something Jack Allen would have wanted and expected, he had the utmost respect for law enforcement.
Although posters are documenting a litany of problems associated with some forensic science labs they seem to overlook the fact that the WSP Lab found the DNA on the bat which later was identified as matching Davila. I’m confused as to whether they are trying to point out that the DNA match implicating Davila was the result poor work or whether it’s just an effort on their part to highlight all things bad in law enforcement.
As I read this story the confidential informant supplied information implicating Davila not Davis, so I’m wondering if the position of some of the posters is that Davila may be innocent because of shoddy forensic work and the use of a CI in charging Davila.
@undooly_prosecuted
Perhaps you are unaware that Washington State Law regarding the use of Confidential Informants is far more restrictive then federal law and laws in almost every other state. Without getting into a lot of detail, Washington State requires the restrictive two prong Aguilar-Spinelli test rather then the “totality-of-the-circumstances” test established by SCOTUS.
If your beef is that law enforcement in their probable cause affidavits are not satisfying Aguilar-Spinelli standards, then your beef should be with the judiciary who are required to see to it that those standards are met.
I believe Detective Burbridge, so would Jack if he were here, when Burbridge says “If there are reasons to exonerate them, we want them released” “We wouldn’t want an innocent person in jail”. Keep in mind that a wrongful conviction is a homicide detective’s worst nightmare.
JayNW on July 28 at 12:19 p.m.
brianbreen- nice to see someone with common sense actually post something worth reading, rather than nonsensical babble.
From the earlier reports I read, there was no DNA of Davila, until after Davis was prosecuted. Therefore, it wasn’t a mistake on the WSP labs part- but lack of evidence to check. Once Davila was convicted of a felony, and his DNA taken- then it is run through the state (and I believe national) DNA databse, and that is how they came to find Davila’s DNA matched the DNA found on the bat.
brianrbreen on July 28 at 1:54 p.m.
@JayNW
Right! At the time of the initial investigation the cops did what they should have, collected the evidence and submitted it to the WSP lab where the forensic scientists identified an individual’s DNA on the bat, that’s good, and that is what their job is. I’m sure at the time the cops ran the DNA through the data bases in an effort to identify who it belonged to but because Davila’s DNA was not in the system they could not make a match. Here is a key point, in some places the level of sophistication, as well as the level of law enforcement integrity is such that even though the system generated a match, because there was a conviction that had gone entirely through the appeal process nothing would have been done and the fact that there was a match would have been hidden from everyone. You have to give the cops, and the prosecutors credit for doing the right thing, and reinvestigating the case from the standpoint that possibly a mistake was made OR there was more then one perpetrator involved in the murder.
The investigative work in this case is far from over, and there is a lot of gumshoe left to do. Time will tell whether or not very serious mistakes were made during the initial investigation and prosecution, there may not have been any serious mistakes made, we don’t know, but I’m sure, as in any case some mistakes were made, there is no such thing as a perfect investigation, or a perfect prosecution. Whether or not there was any mistakes made that could have caused an innocent individual to be convicted will be argued at length later on.
The only thing I would hope is that because of the circumstances and the possibility that questions may arise regarding the initial investigation the Chief and the Prosecutor think seriously about having investigators and prosecutors completely independent of each agency assist with the reinvestigation and subsequent prosecution. I’m not saying take the entire reinvestigation away from those initially involved but there needs to be some type of on going independent oversight of the reinvestigation to assure those charged, the public and others that all the proper steps are being taken in the interest of justice. In the long run that approach may very well put them in a position where even though they will get the typical skepticism from certain segments of the community the majority of the community will understand. Of course on the other hand they can always just say “Go pound sand”.
D Statler on July 28 at 8:06 p.m.
@brianbreen, I can only state my experience with our criminal informant use in Spokane County. I set while the investigating detective stated under oath that he had no evidence other than that of the informant’s testimony. What ever the rules are.A major unjustice was served to three inocent young men that are still in prison after three years. SB5004 (2010-11) addressed some of the issues needing addressed in Washington state. There is a great book by Alexandra Natapof on Informant testimony. She helped author SB5004 which unfortunately died on the floor this last session. I am hoping that one of our new Senators will pick up this important legislation.Thanks for your informative colmn sir.
Slightlyworried on July 29 at 10:57 p.m.
@Brianbreen:
Your ardant defense of our criminal justice system is very articulate. You are especially happy to point out the crime lab found some unidentified DNA on the bat and none from the suspect. Yet he was still convicted.
What you do not wish to address is the fact that two dozen men sentenced to death were later exonerated yet no one in the criminal justice system, with the exception of criminal defense lawyers, are willing to admit the system is broken (otherwise, how do two dozen men get put in 5’ x 8’ cell a few feet from a death chamber for a crime they did not commit?).
What happens is that police make assumptions, only gather evidence that supports their assumption, and prosecutors rubber stamp the investigation. Juries falsely assume that the police and prosecutors have done their job.
This system will not be fixed until a police officer or prosecutor becomes one of those people to come off death row for a crime they did not commit.
brianrbreen on July 30 at 10:33 a.m.
@Slightlyworried
As long as our criminal justice system is made up of human beings, it will be imperfect, and when an injustice takes place it can always in some way be attributed to a living breathing person or persons. On the other hand when a miscarriage of justice is identified and subsequently corrected in every case including the ones you cite it has been people, real dedicated people, that have fought to try and undue the wrong.
Police do make assumptions, they have to, and yes in some cases, they only collect evidence that supports those assumptions. In this case, yes, they did make some assumptions, some of those assumptions MAY or MAY NOT have been wrong, but without question the public record available at this point demonstrates they DID NOT fail to collect evidence that might be exculpatory, and when that evidence came to light they did in fact take the appropriate steps to try and determine whether or not a miscarriage of justice has taken place. I can tell you from personal experience that in two of the cases you cite involving death row inmates and DNA the authorities did not, post conviction, even with advancements in DNA evidence, bother to try to determine whether or not the convicted individual might be innocent. The Innocence Project had to force them to take the steps necessary to prove that persons innocence. That is not the case here! It was brought to light by the authorities and is now being examined from the standpoint that they may have been wrong. That does not undo what could have been a huge mistake but I do not know what more one could ask of them at this point.
There is no evidence in the public domain from which a reasonable person could infer that this case is like some of the cases you mention where the authorities refused to acknowledge that an injustice had taken place.