Judge’s slip lands sisters in torment
Casey Compton was happily preparing to give birth to her first child in July when a phone call hurled her back 14 years, to the worst night of her life.
One day before the baby was born, she was told that the man who had pleaded guilty to murdering her mother had withdrawn those pleas and wanted a trial. The reason? A Franklin County judge misspoke during the man’s sentencing hearing all those years ago.
“It’s awful,” Casey said. “It’s a nightmare. We never imagined we’d be facing this. I thought we’d have a lot more years and then we’d be dealing with the parole board.”
Mary Compton, 37, was stabbed to death on Jan. 22, 2000, in front of Casey and her older sister, Jessi Compton, in their Grandview Heights town home. Casey was 16; Jessi was 19.
Police arrested Chad M. Davis in a bedroom of the home near a bloody knife. He was 21 and one of a group of friends of the Compton girls.
The girls and two other friends who were there told Grandview police that Davis had appeared to be under the influence of drugs, perhaps LSD, when he stopped at the house that night. They said he became irrational and confrontational, eventually grabbing an ornamental hunting knife he found in the house and making threats.
Her mother tried to calm him down, Casey said. “She said, ‘ You’re not going to hurt anyone.’ That’s when he stabbed her.”