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Essay / The controversies of the Brian Davis affair
On June 29, 2009, the decomposing body of Brian Davis was found on an old dirt road near the Intracoastal Waterway, south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Calcasieu Parish Coroner Dr. Terry Welk ruled the circumstances of the death to be a homicide. Davis suffered four gunshot wounds, three to the back, and the final fatal shot to the head. Investigators immediately began to have suspicions from the beginning of the investigation. The victim was found near his Honda Civic which appeared to be lifted on one side, as if preparing to change a tire. However, further investigation into the tire concluded that the tire, being almost new, had no leaks and was not damaged. In addition to the undamaged tire, the victim had an air compressor in the trunk of his car. The location of the vehicle and body was also questionable. Friends and family of the victim said Davis was particularly careful about where he drove his vehicle and would never drive on an old dirt road to change a tire, for fear of damaging his car badly. -loved. A search of the car showed Davis' wallet, laptop, cell phone, GPS and handgun missing. However, other valuables were left at the scene, such as a gold watch on Davis' wrist and his wedding ring on his finger. Investigators ruled out the possibility of a robbery gone wrong instead of this evidence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay The interrogation of Brian Davis' wife, Robyn Davis, has made investigators even more suspicious of the incident. When asked where she was at the time of the murder, Robyn's story changed several times, and each time her story did not match her cell phone records. Her cell phone records showed her cell phone "ringing" from a tower opposite the direction she claimed to be in at 3:50 p.m. on the day of her husband's death, around the approximate time of death. Robyn claimed she was shopping with her best friend Carol Saltzman at the time of the murder, having been with her husband just hours before. Both women's stories changed several times as to their whereabouts, who was driving, etc. On December 10, 2009, Robyn Davis and Carol Saltzman were indicted by a grand jury for the first degree murder of Brian Davis. On May 3, 2011, the indictment was amended, charging both women with second-degree murder. In November 2011, both women pleaded not guilty and the case was sent back to court. The women were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Both defense attorneys' arguments were based on insufficient evidence against their clients. There was no DNA evidence linking these women to the crime, but due to the decomposition of the body, a DNA profile could not be extracted. LeAnne Suchanek of the Southwest Louisiana Crime Lab said that to obtain a known DNA profile, the sample must be extracted directly from a person's fluid or cellular tissue (findlaw.com, 2009). The defendants argued that the evidence against them was circumstantial. Defendant-Davis claimed that she was wrongly convicted on the grounds that there was no evidence that she shot the victim or was present at the scene of the murder. Both defendants claim the only evidence the state had against them was their cell phone records.