Deadly punch leads to probation, 30-day jail sentence for man

A man who COLUMBUS — threw a fatal punch in a North Side parking lot was sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail and three years of probation.

John T. Davis III, 49, continued to insist that he feared for his life when he punched 53-year-old John D. Dawson in the face on March 27, 2016, outside an apartment complex on Webster Canyon Drive.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen L. McIntosh had rejected that self-defense claim in February when he convicted Davis of involuntary manslaughter.

He warned Davis at Friday’s hearing that he will send him to prison for three years if he violates probation.

McIntosh set June 30 as the date for Davis’ jail sentence to begin. If Davis appeals the conviction before then, the judge said he will place a stay on the jail time pending the outcome of the appeal.

Davis had waived his right to a jury, leaving his fate in the judge’s hands.

He testified during the trial that Dawson “came at me aggressive, like he was going to hurt me, and I defended myself.” The men had exchanged words, with Davis saying he was upset after his daughter told him that Dawson had tried to sell her a gun.

The punch broke Dawson’s nose and knocked him to the ground. His head struck the pavement, fracturing his skull. He died three days later at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.

An eyewitness testified that he “didn’t see Dawson do anything” before the punch was thrown.

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Cable told the judge that Davis should be sent to prison, in part because of his reluctance to cooperate with the pre-sentencing investigation, a sign that “he isn’t taking this seriously enough.”

Defense attorney Jeremy Wright argued that probation was more appropriate.

The judge and both sides agreed that Davis didn’t intend to kill Dawson. He was convicted of causing the death by committing assault.

“I did not find your testimony credible during the trial,” McIntosh told Davis. “I say that because you need to be up front and honest with the probation department about what’s happening and what’s going on” to avoid being sent to prison.

No one from Dawson’s family attended the hearing, but Davis apologized to them.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he said. “I was afraid for my life at the time. I’m sorry it happened.”

The artist of PITTSBURGH — a painting depicting the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice has withdrawn the piece from a Pittsburgh arts festival after an outcry that the white artist was exploiting black pain.

Tom Megalis’ painting “Within 2 Seconds, the Shooting of Tamir Rice” was among 54 works accepted into this year’s Three Rivers Arts Festival, according to the Post-Gazette.

Before he delivered the work to the June 2-11 festival, Megalis posted an image of it on Facebook. That’s when the intense reactions started pouring in.

Megalis, a Cleveland resident and a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, said he was shocked by the response. He said his intention was to document his outrage about the police killing of the 12-year-old black Ohio boy.

“That’s the last thing I wanted to do,” he said of the accusations of cultural appropriation. “That’s when I decided to pull the painting” from the exhibition.

The arts festival’s website describes many of the works in the juried show as dealing with “issues of race, gender, immigration and other social concerns.”

The posting has since been removed from the artist’s Facebook page.

In March, an abstract painting of lynching victim Emmett Till on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York was the subject of a protest by a black artist who decried the canvas as “an injustice to the black community” because it was painted by a white woman.

Parker Bright spent March 17 and 18 standing in front of the painting by Dana Schutz, who used historic photographs as inspiration for her depiction of Till, a 14-yearold black Chicago boy killed by white men in Mississippi in 1955.