Judge overturns guilty plea for child killer Davis
Life sentence remains in effect for Woonsocket murderer, but appeal on molestation plea is granted
PROVIDENCE - A Superior Court judge has granted former Woonsocket resident Joshua avis one portion of an appeal of his conviction for kidnapping, beating and raping, and murdering an -year-old neighbor, Savannah Smith, in May of 2006 but let stand the rest of his voluntary plea to the crime earning him life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge Susan E. McGuirl in her Oct. 15 ruling accepted Davis’ Superior Court appeal argument that his guilty plea to a charge of st degree child molestation of Smith was not “knowing and voluntary” because he had not been informed by the judge for his April 17 2018, change of plea hearing, nor his public defender attorney, that it would result in him being subject to sex offender registration and community supervision.
Davis’ appeal, according
to McGuirl’s decision, also argued that he had not been “competent when he entered his guilty plea on April 17, 2008, because of mental illness he was suffering and the “prescribed anti-psychotic medications” he had been given at the time.
Smith went missing from her Coe Street neighborhood after playing in Woonsocket’s nearby Globe Park on May 7, 2006. While searching for the child, members of the Woonsocket Police Department questioned Davis, 33 at the time, and he subsequently led them to Savannah’s body in a wooded section of Cranston, according to the decision.
Davis confessed to “driving Savannah from Woonsocket to Cranston, engaging in sexual intercourse with her, and strangling her with his hands,” the ruling recounted.
A used condom containing Davis’ “semen inside and the victim’s blood on the outside” was also found near her body.
As a result of the investigation of the crime, Davis was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree child molestation, and kidnapping of a minor. The decision notes he was held without bail from the time of his arrest on May 7, 2006, until he entered guilty pleas to all three charges on April 17, 2008.
On June 25, 2008, Davis was sentenced to serve life without parole for the murder, and consecutive life sentences for the crimes of first-degree child molestation and kidnapping of a minor, McGuirl’s ruling noted.
Davis began appealing his conviction in 2011 and it has continued to a Supreme Court review before being remanded back to the Superior Court for its recent deposition.
On the issue of his competency to make his change of plea from not guilty to guilty, McGuirl found that Davis had “repeatedly indicated his desire to plead guilty to all three counts prior to the entry and acceptance of the pleas.
“The record repeatedly indicates that Petitioner’s seasoned trial counsel advised him that he should not plea to the charges levied against him and proceed to trial. Despite these attempts, Petitioner remained adamant that he enter guilty pleas, even in the face of a possible sentence of life without parole on Count I, and life with the possibility of parole on Counts II and III,” McGuirl noted.
“Accordingly, the Court is satisfied that the possibility of the imposition of those sentences pales in comparison to the lifetime monitoring that accompanies a plea and/or conviction for first degree child molestation and its accompanying community supervision statutes,” the ruling states.
“Indeed, the imposition of lifetime community supervision which includes electronic monitoring, the possibility of additional conditions of parole, and the possibility of additional jail time for supervision violations, logically implies that an individual has served their sentenced period of incarceration and has returned to the general populace. In light of this, the Court is satisfied that the Petitioner has failed to demonstrate that but for his counsels’ ineffective representation, he would not have entered a plea and proceeded to trial,” the decision states.
In her conclusion, McGuirl stated that “after reviewing the evidence before it, this Court concludes that the Petitioner’s guilty pleas for Count I and Count III were entered in compliance with Rule 11’s mandates and comport with Constitutional requirements and must stand.”
On the second issues of sex offender registration, McGuirl ruled Davis “was not apprised that the community supervision statute would be mandatorily imposed as a result of his guilty plea for Count II, thus his plea to this charge was not knowing and voluntary.”
The ruling state’s that “accordingly, Petitioner’s plea for Count II is vacated, and the matter is remanded.”