DADE CITY, Fla. — A Pasco County jury convicted James Davis, a man accused of killing a well-known 1980s animated series writer, of first-degree murder.
The jury deliberated almost exactly four hours Monday before returning its verdict.
The 12-person jury was convicted 56-year-old Davis killed Steven Perry in 2010, dismembered his body and spread his parts across various locations in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. The two men were housemates in Zephyrhills.
Perry had credits including well-known shows like “Thundercats.”
In their closing arguments, prosecutors reviewed a long list of circumstantial evidence against Davis, including a letter to his wife written from jail that arguably reads like a confession.
But it’s the physical evidence, such as surveillance videos, DNA, and store receipts for items linking Davis to the crime that prosecutors said to make their case.
“Do those seem the items of a handyman? Or are those items you need to cover up a murder? And bag body parts, bag evidence, get rid of it?” prosecutor Manny Garcia asked the jury.
Davis’s defense lawyers contend there was enough doubt to acquit Davis.
“There is no eyewitness here,” Davis’s defense lawyer Anne Borghetti told the jury. “This is [a] purely circumstantial case.”
Moreover, Davis’s lawyers said the state failed to provide a motive other than to try to link Davis to withdrawals from Perry’s bank accounts after he’d presumably been killed.
Other people, said Borghetti, did have a motive to kill Perry. She referred to an ongoing child custody issue and one of Davis’ friends who was also seen in several of the same surveillance videos as Davis and was also registered at the same hotel where some of Perry’s remains were recovered.
“From the evidence, you can find a doubt about who actually did this,” Borghetti said.
The question was whether the defense was able to raise enough doubt with any of the jurors to get an acquittal.
Early on it in the deliberation phase, it looked like perhaps they had.
Less than 20 minutes after getting the case, jurors asked for the physical description of one of the other men mentioned by the defense, giving some court watchers the impression that at least one juror was considering other theories.