Gang member guilty of second-degree murder
An 18-year-old Spokane gang member who settled his problems with a gun will be a middle-aged man before he gets out of prison.
A Spokane County jury acquitted Dustin Allen Davis of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder Monday, but convicted him of the second-degree versions of those crimes.
The jury also convicted Davis, already a felon, of first-degree illegal possession of a firearm and first-degree malicious mischief. Davis kicked out a wall in a police interview room after he was arrested for the April 27 shooting of 17-year-old Frank Joseph Silva, who died a day later.
Davis faces a standard range of 34 to 482/3 years in prison when Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke III sentences him on Nov. 28.
The attempted-murder conviction resulted from shots Davis fired at Silva’s 16-year-old nephew, Brandon Silva, after putting a .38-caliber bullet into Frank Silva’s forehead at close range.
The gunfire occurred at 3:20 p.m. in an alley behind 2410 W. Boone Ave.
Police said Frank Silva and Dustin Davis were rival gang members. They said Davis was an Eastside Avalon Crip, while Silva was an A Street Crip.
Court documents and testimony indicated the two quarreled at Cannon Park the day before the shooting.
Davis told jurors he acted in self-defense when he thought Silva was about to pull a gun on him. However, police said Silva apparently was unarmed and expecting a fistfight when Davis shot him.
The two men met at the mouth of the alley while several of Silva’s friends waited at the other end.
Police said Davis told them he shot at Brandon Silva because he thought Frank Silva had dropped a gun that Brandon Silva would pick up.
No witness reported seeing either of the Silvas with a gun.
Davis previously was convicted of second-degree robbery in a 2003 case.
Frank Silva also was no stranger to violence, having been shot in the torso and arm on Jan. 14.
In that case, police said he was shot by a 19-year-old man Silva’s girlfriend called to help remove Silva from her home.
Assistant public defender Jeff Compton told the jurors that Davis and Silva were part of a subculture in which people “handle their own problems.”
Compton said Davis was so afraid of Silva because of a previous confrontation that he felt compelled to arm himself and to shoot first when he believed Silva was reaching for a gun.