Suspect tried to intimidate witness from testifying, police say
A Ferndale credit card theft suspect was free on personal bond until prosecutors successfully argued to increase his bond after authorities say he tried to intimidate a witness from testifying against him.
Demario Davis, 19, of Warren was ordered Monday in Ferndale 43rd District Court in a video hearing to turn himself in and be held on $1,500 cash bond the next day.
But he never showed up.
Davis is charged with illegal use of a financial transaction device, a four-year felony. The witness ended up testifying Monday.
“Our witness was scared to testify,” said Ferndale police Officer Jillian Mahlmeister. The suspect
“went into the Citgo gas station in Warren where the witness worked and told him he knew he was one of the people who had talked to police.”
Under the terms of Davis’s personal bond he was prohibited from having any contact with the gas station in Warren.
A Ferndale man had his wallet, four credit cards and expensive Gucci sunglasses stolen from his car back in August, during a rash of similar thefts from
cars in the city.
Police said Davis and an unknown man had gone to the gas station and purchased a carton of cigarettes and other tobacco products before the owner of the credit cards even learned they had been stolen.
Ferndale police investigators learned of the illegal use of the cards, went to the gas where they had been used, and reviewed surveillance video that showed Davis and an unknown accomplice there making credit card transactions, police said.
“We also saw the suspect had sold a pair of blue Gu
cci sunglasses to the person at the gas station,” bel ieved to have been stolen from the Ferndale man’s car, Mahlmeister said.
Police got a warrant charging Davis with the illegal credit card use in October. The warrant was outstanding and Ferndale police were finally able to pick him up from the Macomb County Jail and get him arraigned on Dec. 15.
Davis’s criminal history includes convictions for il
legal credit or debit card use in Grosse Pointe Woods and a weapons offense last year in Warren, police said.
Though Davis indicated he would turn himself in during his video conference hearing Monday before Ferndale 43rd District Judge Joseph Longo, the suspect failed to show up Tuesday, police said.
Longo ordered Davis to stand trial in Oakland County Circuit Court at the end of Monday’s hearing.
Because the suspect failed to show up Tuesday a new outstanding warrant for his arrest on the credit card charge was issued by the court.