Teenager guilty of murder

The third of three teens involved in the murder of George Baker was convicted at a jury trial March 10.

After three hours of testimony and over an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury convicted Kenneth Jerome Davis Jr. of first-degree murder.

The key issue in Davis’ case was premeditation of murder. If premeditation was not proven, the maximum conviction would be second-degree murder.

Davis, who was 16 at the time of the slaying was downtown with a group of nearly a dozen teens and, according eyewitnesses, apparently intoxicated at the time of the murder.

According to eyewitness and his own testimonies, he told his friends he planned to hit someone downtown to impress some of the girls in the group and threatened D’Antonio Davis and Vernon Jackson, the other teens on trial, he would “stretch them out” if they did not back up his attack.

Baker, who was in town from Tempe, Ariz. to celebrate his grand-daughter’s wedding, left the downtown wedding reception after 10:30 p.m. The teens saw him walking ahead of them and asked him for a cigarette before initiating their attack.

After repeatedly hitting and kicking Baker on 1100 block of Main Street, they left him on the ground and unconscious with eight broken ribs and a fractured skull.

D’Antonio Davis, who was 13 when the September 5 attack took place, was the only teen not tried as an adult. He was convicted of first-degree murder on Feb. 28. and is to be sentenced April 8. He faces a maximum penalty of custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice until he turns 21.

Kenneth Davis will be sentenced May 20, with the maximum sentence of life in prison.

Jackson is the last to be tried. His trial and plea hearing have been postponed. According to prosecutors, Jackson will be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testimony against Kenneth Davis. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 40 years in prison.