Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Bobby
Lee CUTTS Jr.
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Police
officer
Number of victims: 1 + 1
Date of murder:
June 14,
2007
Date of arrest:
9 days after
Date of birth:
May 21,
1977
Victim profile: His girlfriend, Jessie Marie Davis, 26
(near-term pregnant)
Method of murder:
Struck her in the
throat with his elbow
Location: Lake Township, Ohio, USA
Status: Sentenced to 57 years to life
in prison on February 26, 2008
Jessie Marie Davis (1981, Waco — June 14, 2007, Lake
Township) was the murdered, near-term pregnant 26-year-old Ohio woman
first reported missing from her Lake Township home on June 13, 2007. The
case drew an extraordinary response from the American media.
On June 23, 2007, Bobby Lee Cutts, Jr., the father of
her 2˝-year-old son and unborn daughter was charged in the case. A high-school
friend of Cutts, Myisha Lynne Ferrell, was also later charged.
Disappearance, recovery of body and funeral
Davis was last seen shopping at Acme Fresh Market, a
local grocery store. Her mother reported her missing on June 13, 2007,
when she found her 2-year-old grandson home alone, with bleach spilled
on the floor and furniture broken and overturned.
In televised reports, Davis' mother reported that the
2-year old kept stating, "Mommy broke the table" and "Mommy's in the rug".
At the time of her disappearance, Davis was a resident of Lake Township
in Stark County, Ohio.
A search of the area involving "thousands of
volunteers" including members of Texas EquuSearch, was launched. On June
23. Davis' body was recovered in a wooded area in neighboring Summit
County, in Hampton Hills Metro Park, a park surrounded by but distinct
from Cuyahoga Valley National Park, in the vicinity of Cuyahoga Falls.
The first reliable website to pin down the widely
reported rumor that Cutts had assisted in locating the body of Davis was
that of America's Most Wanted: "AMW sources have confirmed that Bobby
Cutts Jr., Jessie's boyfriend and the father of her 2-year-old son Blake,
led law enforcement to the body."
The post-mortem was performed by the Summit County
authorities (as this is where the body was recovered). Her body was
reported to be in an "advanced state of decomposition".
The autopsy was performed the following day,
confirming her identity. Investigators believe Davis was murdered on
June 14, but confirmation of this as well as the precise means of death
await the results of forensic tests.
Bob Budgake, director of the Stark-Summit County
crime lab indicated that the lab was "working overtime and weekends to
process evidence from the Jessie Davis case, two other recent murders
and other investigations."
A single-casket funeral was held June 30 at the House
of the Lord, a regional megachurch, with subsequent interment at
Greenlawn Memorial Park, both in the Akron area; the arrangements were
handled by the Silva-Hostetler Funeral Home.
Members of the Cutts family attended; Davis' son,
Blake, however, did not as the "family felt the toddler had already been
through enough." Approximately 750 people attended the service.
Her mother, Patricia Porter, said at the service that
her daughter had been a committed God-fearing person after doing
overseas missionary work but at some point "she took a wrong turn
somewhere."
Porter said her daughter realized in church a few
weeks ago that she needed to reform her life.
Prior to the funeral, hundreds paid their final
respects for Davis with a candlelight vigil held outside her Lake
Township duplex and during calling hours at the House of the Lord
Church.
Arrests and arraignment
Bobby Lee Cutts, Jr.
Davis' boyfriend, Bobby Lee Cutts, Jr., was arrested
and charged with two counts of murder. Cutts was a police officer in the
Canton, Ohio Police Department, and the father of Davis' son and unborn
daughter.
Cutts (b. May 21, 1977 in Canton) is the son of Renee
Horne and Bobby Cutts, Sr. He was married to another woman at the time,
from whom he was separated. According to Cutts, the couple had discussed
a divorce. His wife formally filed for divorce four days after his
arrest. Other allegations of abuse had previously been leveled against
Cutts in Stark county.
For much of the period leading to the discovery of
the body, local law enforcement told the news media that Cutts was not a
suspect, nor even a "person of interest". At the time of his arrest,
Cutts was a resident of Plain Township in Stark County.
In the only interview Cutts has granted to the press
to date was published in The Repository. This was with Todd Porter, a
sportswriter with whom Cutts had previous contact. Cutts denied he was
involved.
Porter writes: "Cutts looked tired, sullen and
depressed. He openly wept during an exclusive interview with The
Repository from his home." (an audio/video copy of this interview,
posted on YouTube is available from the linked page in the preceding
footnote)
Bobby Cutts Jr. is believed to have been active on a
dating site during the time Davis was missing and allegedly logged in
just days before his arrest on June 23.
Myisha Lynne Ferrell
Bobby Cutts and Myisha Ferrell graduated together in
1995 from GlenOak High School.
The police raided Ferrell's apartment on June 23,
where they seized cleaning supplies and duct tape, among other things.
The Canton Repository reported that:
A source close to Cutts told The Repository Saturday
that Cutts said he asked a female friend help him remove Davis’ body
from her home. Cutts reportedly said Davis’ death was not his doing, but
he thought no one would believe him and decided to hide the body.
The impression that Ferrell was involved in moving
the body is reinforced by the statements made at the court hearing of
July 2.
Ferrell was arrested and charged with obstruction of
justice. At the time of her arrest, she was employed part time at a
local Denny's; she was also undergoing eviction proceedings from her
apartment.
Arraignment
Cutts and Ferrell were arraigned on June 25. Judge
John Poulos set Cutts' bond at $5,000,000; Ferrell's bail was set at
$500,000. That same day, Cutts was suspended without pay from the Canton
Police Department; previously, he had been on paid administrative leave.
Subsequent court proceedings
Each appeared at separate court hearings on July 2,
before Judge Richard J. Kubilus. These preliminary hearings were meant
for the prosecution to present sufficient probable cause to hold the
accused. The complexity of the case, and the time frame of the arrests
made this necessary as insufficient time existed to obtain an indictment.
However, both defendants waived the preliminary hearing, and the case
went to the grand jury. Cutts is represented by Bradley Iams, while
Ferrell is represented John Alexander, Jr. of Akron. A request for bail
reduction was made on behalf of Ferrell, but this was refused after the
prosecutor said "Myisha Ferrell 'helped deposit the body' and lied to
police officers several times throughout the investigation."
On November 5, 2007, as her trial was about to begin,
Ferrell agreed to plead guilty to charges of obstruction of justice and
complicity to gross abuse of a corpse for her role in Davis'
disappearance and death. Under the terms of her plea agreement, Ferrell
was sentenced to two years in prison—a sentence that may be lengthened
unless Ferrell testifies honestly at the trial of Cutts. The judge said
he would consider releasing Ferrell on probation after one year.
Trial of
Bobby Lee Cutts, Jr.
Cutts' trial began on February 4, 2008. On February
11, Cutts took the stand and described Davis's death. He said that he
struggled with her in her house and struck her in the throat with his
elbow. Cutts testified that he tried to resuscitate Davis after she
became unconscious. He also said that he did not call 911 because Davis
didn't have a telephone in her house and he didn't know how to turn on
her cell phone.
On February 15, 2008, Cutts was convicted of the
murder of Davis and the aggravated murder of her unborn child. He was
also found guilty of associated charges, including aggravated burglary;
gross abuse of a corpse; and child endangering. Cutts faced the
possibility of life imprisonment or a death sentence. The jury, in its
penalty phase, declined to impose the death penalty. The judge sentenced
Cutts to life in prison with no eligibility for parole until 54 years of
his sentence has been served
Final verdict and
sentence
Bobby Cutts, Jr. was sentenced on February 27, 2008,
to life imprisonment without the eligibility of parole for 57 years. He
must serve time for each of his convicted murders consecutively, with
additional minor concurrently with the murder convictions.
Wikipedia.org
Killer ex-cop gets 57 to life
after jury spares him
By Mallory Simon and Ann O'Neill - CNN.com
February 27, 2008
Jurors spared the life of a former Canton, Ohio,
police officer who killed his pregnant girlfriend and tearfully asked
them for mercy. A judge then sentenced him Wednesday to 57 years to life
in prison.
Bobby Lee Cutts Jr., 30, will
be 87 by the time he becomes eligible for parole.
He stared straight ahead as the jury
of six men and six women recommended that his life be spared.
He and his lawyer teared up as the
jurors were polled about their decision.
Judge Charles E. Brown added to the
sentence, taking other counts into consideration after hearing victim
impact statements from the parents and sisters of victim Jessie Marie
Davis.
She was 26 and nine months pregnant
when she disappeared last June. Her body, and that of her unborn child,
were found 10 days later at a state park in northeastern Ohio.
Whitney Davis, Jessie's sister,
directed her anger and grief at Cutts. "You got rid of someone that was
an inconvenience. I hate you."
She continued: ""You used and manipulated her over
and over and still you sit there and you are not crying. I don't believe
that you are sorry for what you did. I believe that you are sorry that
you got caught up in all your lies. I don't know that you would know the
truth."
Cutts took off his eyeglasses
as Davis' father, Ned, addressed him: "Don't even look at me."
"Your honor he violently murdered
her," the anguished father continued. "Five-foot-four, nine months
pregnant, that baby could have been delivered."
And, tears rolled down Cutts' face
as Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, spoke of her grief. "There are
mornings I have to cover her picture up, when I can't get out of bed."
She continued, "I serve an amazing
God, Bobby. A God that forgives and heals and restores people. And all I
know today is that I do forgive you, and I know it is only through him
that I am able to do that."
But she turned the other cheek: "I
may not have family to go home to after this, but I pray that you make a
way for him to get out of there and begin a new life, and to be able to
hold his son."
Porter, who is raising Blake, told
Cutts the child "knows what you did. You would not believe the stories
he has told us."
When his time came, Cutts offered no
statement, no testimonials to his character.
On February 15, the same jury found
Cutts guilty of murdering Jessie Davis and their baby, who was to be
named Chloe.
It was Chloe's death that made Cutts
eligible for the death penalty. Jurors convicted him of two counts of
aggravated murder -- for terminating a pregnancy and taking her life
during the commission of a felony.
All the members of the jury are
white, as was Davis. Cutts is black.
Cutts, who has maintained Davis'
death was the result of an accidental elbow to the neck, asked the jury
to spare his life and offered a tearful apology at his sentencing
hearing Tuesday.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
I'm asking you to spare my life," he said. "To imagine that I was
responsible for the death of Jessie, the mother of my children and my
unborn daughter, is beyond any words that I can express," Cutts added,
reading from a handwritten statement.
"Words cannot bring them back, nor
can they erase the pain I've caused, but I want to apologize," he said.
Cutts' lawyer, Fernando Mack, had
urged jurors to recommend the lowest available penalty -- 25 years to
life -- to allow him to play a limited role in his other children's
lives.
Mack acknowledged that many of the
jurors might still be angry with Cutts for leaving his 2˝-year-old son,
home alone for more than a day while his mother lay dead in a field.
But sentencing Cutts to death hurts
Blake even more, he argued. "That is still Blake's father, like it or
not. The prosecutor here wants you to kill Blake's father, so now he'll
have no parents."
Stark County Assistant Prosecutor
Dennis Barr attacked Cutts' character and his sincerity on the stand. A
police officer should have known better, he said.
"Bobby Cutts took an oath to serve
and protect," the prosecutor argued. "But on June 14, 2007, Bobby Cutts
did not serve and protect. He destroyed."
According to testimony, Cutts rolled
Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving toddler son
Blake in the house alone at the crime scene in a soiled diaper.
"Mommy's in the rug," Blake told
police, according to testimony.
Prosecutors charged during the trial
that Cutts buckled under the financial pressure of additional child
support, killed Davis, and then created a cover story to try to get away
with it.
After the sentencing, prosecutors --
no longer restricted in their comments by a gag order -- told reporters
Cutts led authorities to Davis' body, but no deal was made in return.
Davis' father, Ned Davis, told
reporters, "Our family, in one sense, was fortunate that we had some
legal resolution because I know along with this, there are families out
there that don't ever get an answer. It doesn't make it any less painful,
but at least this part of it is resolved."
