King Jay’s father wants his $1.25 million bail to be reduced
The father accused of failing to seek medical care for his 8month-old son, King Jay Davila, is seeking to have his bail reduced, claiming the $1.25 million is excessive and oppressive.
Christopher Davila, 34, is accused of staging an elaborate kidnapping with the help of his mother and cousin to mislead police after the boy died in a supposed accident.
Davila has been charged with injury to a child, child endangerment, tampering with evidence, possession of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He remains jailed in lieu of posting bond.
Robert Behrens, who recently was hired to represent Davila, filed motions Tuesday in four of Davila’s cases, arguing his client’s combined bail is illegal because it is “excessive, oppressive and beyond the financial means of Christopher Davila,” court records show.
“I think the bail was set to keep him in jail,” Behrens told the San Antonio Express-News last month. “The purpose of bail is to keep them in court, not to keep them in jail.”
In the motion, Behrens argues the bail amount violates the Eighth and 14th Amendments, which prohibit cruel and unusual punishment and guarantee citizens the right to due process.
He asks a judge to set a hearing to have Davila’s bail reduced to a reasonable amount, which he didn’t specify.
In the interview, Behrens said Davila’s family members would have to come up with $125,000 if they were to pay the standard 10 percent charged by a bondsman. He said that amount is excessive, especially considering that Davila is not a flight risk.
“In the past, he’s appeared in court to my knowledge,” Behrens said. “He’s taken cases to resolution. I don’t think he has a history of not showing up for court.”
Since Davila was arrested Jan. 10, he has maintained that King died after falling from a bed at his Northeast Side home. He said he didn’t call 911 because he panicked and didn’t want to lose custody of his five other sons.
Police have hinted that they do not believe Davila’s latest account. The Bexar County medical examiner's office concluded that King died of a blunt force trauma injury and ruled his death a homicide — a determination different from the charge brought by police.
Police say Davila’s mother, Beatrice Sampayo, 64, and his cousin, Angie Torres, 45, helped Davila cover up King’s death by staging the kidnapping.
On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted Torres on an unrelated aggravated robbery charge stem-
ming from an incident days after King Jay was reported missing in the fake kidnapping.
According to police, Torres stole razors from a Dollar General store Jan. 6 and kicked an employee, who had confronted her. As officers investigated the incident, they realized Torres looked like the woman seen in a gas station security video of the kidnapping.
According to the Bexar County district attorney’s office, Torres’ indictment was enhanced because she’s a repeat offender previously convicted in federal court of possession of heroin with the intent to distribute.
Davila’s application to have his bail reduced comes a month after his mother did something similar.
Sampayo was released from jail last month after her court-appointed lawyer, Melissa Lesniak,
argued that her $250,000 bail was “exhaustive and oppressive given her situation.”
According to Lesniak, Sampayo was accepted into hospice care in June after a doctor diagnosed her with ovarian and bone cancer and determined that the diagnosis was terminal.
Lesniak argued that bail is designed to guarantee a defendant’s presence in court, and that Sampayo, who is supposedly largely confined to bed, was not a flight risk.
Prosecutors fought the motion, arguing that Sampayo was a “danger to society.” They introduced evidence, including several videos, to counter Sampayo’s claim that she is gravely ill and to show Sampayo had previously concealed a crime by her son.
In the end, Magistrate Judge Andrew Carruthers agreed with Lesniak and lowered Sampayo’s bail to $50,000. She was released two days later.