Davis to be retried on fraud charges

Former Southaven Mayor Greg Davis will be retried on felony fraud and embezzlement charges June 19 in Grenada, District Attorney John Champion confirmed Thursday.

Champion said he was still awaiting the letter from the court verifying it, but both sides agreed to the time and location.

Grenada is about 80 miles from Southaven.

The retrial is the result of Mississippi’s Court of Appeals last summer reversing Davis’ 2014 conviction by a DeSoto County Circuit Court jury. The appeals court said Davis should received a change of venue because of intense publicity.

Davis’ attorney, Steve Farese, hoped to avoid a retrial, but Champion was intent on rehearing the case.

The unanimous appeals court decision last July focused entirely on the venue issue. Justices noted that given the fact that the trial was not moved to another location, “we need not discuss the other assignments of error Davis has raised on appeal.”

Davis was Southaven mayor from 1997 to 2013, before losing a re-election bid to Darren Musselwhite.

Davis was convicted of illegally purchasing a city-owned SUV without approval from aldermen, and of being reimbursed for mileage purchased on a city-issued card. He was to serve 21⁄2 years concurrently on each of the charges if the conviction had been upheld.

In a separate civil case, Davis was ordered to repay more than $70,000 to Southaven for improper charges. Davis has repaid about $96,000 of more than $170,000 he was ordered to repay by state Auditor Stacey Pickering.