Richard Allen Davis

For other people named Richard Davis, see Richard Davis (disambiguation).

Richard Allen Davis
Richard Allen Davis in 2007
Born	June 2, 1954 (1954-06-02) San Francisco, California
Conviction(s)	Murder with special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping and lewd act upon a child)
Penalty	Death

Richard Allen "Rick" Davis (born June 2, 1954) is a convicted murderer, whose criminal record fueled support for passage of California's "Three strikes law" for repeat offenders. He is currently on death row in East Block at San Quentin State Prison, California. He was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and four special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and a lewd act on a child) of 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Klaas was abducted October 1, 1993, from her Petaluma, California, home.

A San Jose, California, Superior Court jury recommended the death sentence for Davis on August 5, 1996. After the verdict was read, Davis stood and gestured obscenely at the courtroom with both hands. Later, at his formal sentencing, Davis read a statement claiming that Klaas had said to Davis, "Just don’t do me like my dad," just before Davis killed her, implying that Klaas' father was a child molester. Klaas' father, Marc Klaas, reacted angrily and left the courtroom to avoid causing further commotion. Judge Thomas C. Hastings proceeded with the formality of the death sentence, saying "Mr. Davis, this is always a traumatic and emotional decision for a judge. You made it very easy today by your conduct."

Early life

Davis was born the third of five children in San Francisco. Both of his parents, Bob and Evelyn Davis, were alcoholics. His mother was a strict disciplinarian and is believed to have punished Davis for smoking by burning his hand.

The couple divorced when Davis was 11. After the divorce, Bob, a longshoreman, won custody of all five children "because of the mother's alleged immoral conduct in the presence of the children," according to a probation report on Davis. He moved around frequently, living variously in Chowchilla, Fremont, and San Francisco. The bulk of his childhood was spent in the small town of La Honda.

Davis' father would remarry three times; Davis resented all of his stepmothers. Although he had wanted custody when their marriage dissolved, the elder Davis was sometimes either unable or unwilling to care for his children, so they shuttled between their parents, as well as between paternal and maternal grandparents. Bob Davis was evidently mentally unstable and sometimes suffered from hallucinations; he is reported to have taken a gun outside the home and shot at mirages.

At an early age, Davis tortured and killed animals. According to Ruth Baron, a mother of one of Davis' childhood friends, "He would douse cats with gasoline and set them on fire. He made a point of letting people know he carried a knife, and he used to find stray dogs and cut them."

However, a few people in Davis' life have happier memories of him; his younger sister, Darlene, remembered him as a responsible substitute for their often absent parents. "Rick brought me up," she said. "He cooked and cleaned. He was my father and my mother."

By the time he entered his teens, Davis was already deeply into a life of crime. He told a psychiatrist that stealing was a surefire way to relieve whatever "tensions" were building up inside of him. He dropped out of high school in his sophomore year.

At 17, Davis found himself in front of a judge, who told him that he could either go to the California Youth Authority or join the United States Army. He chose the latter. Stationed in West Germany, he worked as a military truck driver. He resumed committing petty crimes. He was given a less than honorable discharge after 13 months of service.

On October 12, 1973, he went to a party at the home of 18-year-old Marlene Voris, whom he claimed was his girlfriend. That night, Voris was found dead of a gunshot wound; there were seven suicide notes at the scene, and the police concluded that the young lady had indeed done away with herself. Others, such as Ruth Baron, believe Davis murdered her.

Davis would later claim that Voris shot herself "almost in his presence" and that he had been traumatized by it.

A few weeks after Voris' death, Davis was arrested for attempting to pawn various items he had stolen. He confessed to a string of burglaries in La Honda but claimed he had been motivated, at least sometimes, by hunger. Davis served six months in the county jail. Five weeks after his release, on May 13, 1974, he was arrested for another burglary. He was sentenced to six months to fifteen years in prison. He served a little more than two years.

Criminal justice history record

1960s

• March 6, 1967: At age 12, Davis has his first contact with law enforcement when he was arrested for burglary in Chowchilla, where he lived with his grandmother.
• May 24, 1967: Arrested again for forging a $10 money order. He stayed briefly in juvenile hall before his father moved him and his siblings to La Honda.
• November 15, 1969: Arrested for the burglary of a La Honda home.
• November 16, 1969: The first of several occasions when Davis' father turns Davis and his older brother over to juvenile authorities for incorrigibility.

1970s

• September 15, 1970: Arrested for participating in a motorcycle theft. A probation officer and judge accept his father's suggestion that he enlist in the United States Army to avoid being sent to the California Youth Authority.
• July 1971: Entered the Army. His military record reflects several infractions for AWOL, fighting, failure to report, and morphine use.
• August 1972: General discharge from the military.
• February 12, 1973: Arrested in Redwood City for public drunkenness and resisting arrest. Placed on one-year summary probation.
• April 21, 1973: Arrested in Redwood City for being a minor in possession of liquor, burglary and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Charged with trespassing, later dismissed.
• August 13, 1973: Arrested in Redwood City, leaning against hedges, extremely intoxicated. Released upon sobriety.
• October 24, 1973: Arrested in Redwood City on traffic warrants. Between April and October, he was implicated in more than 20 La Honda burglaries, leading a probation officer to report that residents were so angry at him he might be in danger if he returned to La Honda. He pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to six months in county jail and placed on three years' probation.
• May 13, 1974: Arrested for burglarizing South San Francisco High School. He was sent to the California Medical Facility, Vacaville, for a 90-diagnostic study. A county probation officer recommended prison, but proceedings were suspended when Davis enrolled in a Veterans Administration alcohol treatment program. He quit on the second day.
• September 16, 1974: Sentenced to one year in county jail for the school burglary. He was allowed to leave jail to attend a Native American drug and alcohol treatment program. He failed to return, leaving behind two angry fellow inmates who had given Davis money to buy drugs and bring the contraband back to jail.
• March 2, 1975: After being released, the two inmates tracked Davis down and shot him in the back. He was rearrested on a probation violation for failing to return to jail. Later, he testified against the inmates, earning him the epithet of "snitch" from fellow inmates. He was placed in protective custody.
• April 11, 1975: Arrested for parole violation.
• July 11, 1975: Arrested for auto theft and possession of marijuana. Received 10-day jail sentence.
• August 13, 1975: Probation revoked after arrest for San Francisco burglary and grand theft. He was sentenced to a term of from six months to 15 years in prison.
• August 2, 1976: Paroled from Vacaville.
• September 24, 1976: Abducted Frances Mays, a 26-year-old legal secretary, from the South Hayward BART station and attempted to sexually assault her. She escaped and hailed a passing car in which California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Wentz was riding. Wentz arrested Davis.
• December 8, 1976: Transferred to Napa State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation after he tried to hang himself in a cell at Alameda County Jail. He later admitted he faked the suicide attempt in order to be sent to a state hospital, where he could more easily escape. He was mistakenly admitted as a voluntary patient rather than a prisoner.
• December 16, 1976: Escaped from Napa State Hospital and went on a four-day crime spree in Napa. He broke into the home of Marjorie Mitchell, a nurse at the state hospital, and beat her on the head with a fire poker while she slept. He broke into a car to kidnap Hazel Frost, a bartender, as she climbed into her Cadillac outside a bar. When she saw he had bindings, she rolled out of the car, grabbed a gun from beneath the seat and fired six shots at the fleeing Davis.
• December 21, 1976: Broke into the home of Josephine Kreiger, a bank employee, in La Honda. He was hiding in brush behind the home with a shotgun when arrested by a San Mateo County Sheriff's deputy.
• June 1, 1977: Sentenced to a term of one to 25 years in prison for the Mays kidnapping. A sexual assault charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain. He was later sentenced to concurrent terms for the Napa crime spree and the La Honda break-in.

1980s

• March 4, 1982: Paroled from the Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy.
• November 30, 1984: With new girlfriend-accomplice Sue Edwards, he pistol-whipped Selina Varich, a friend of Edwards' sister, in her Redwood City apartment and forced her to withdraw $6,000 from her bank account. Davis and Edwards make a successful escape.
• March 22, 1985: Arrested in Modesto when a police officer noticed a defective taillight. He and Edwards were charged with robbing a Yogurt Cup shop and the Delta National Bank in Modesto. Authorities in Kennewick, Washington, were unaware for several years that the pair had robbed a bank, a Value Giant store and the Red Steer restaurant during the winter of 1984–1985. Davis later confessed to the crimes in an attempt to implicate Edwards, whom he believed to have broken a promise to help him while he was in prison.

1990s

• June 27, 1993: Paroled from the California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, after serving half of a 16-year sentence for the Varich kidnapping.
• October 1, 1993: Davis kidnapped Polly Klaas during a slumber party at her Petaluma home, committed a lewd act on her, then murdered her by strangulation.
• October 19, 1993: Arrested in Ukiah for drunken driving during the search for Klaas. He failed to appear in court.
• November 30, 1993: Arrested for parole violation on the Coyote Valley Indian Reservation north of Ukiah; he is identified as the prime suspect in the kidnapping.
• December 3, 1993: Davis provides investigators with information that leads them to Klaas's body near U.S. Route 101 near Cloverdale.
• December 7, 1993: Charged with the kidnapping/murder of Klaas.
• June 18, 1996: Convicted of kidnapping/murder of Klaas. Upon conviction, raises his middle fingers to the court, and makes a statement implying his victim's father was her molester.
• August 5, 1996: Superior Court jury in San Jose recommends death sentence.

2000s

• July 2006: Davis was found unconscious in his cell following an opiate overdose.
• June 1, 2009: The California Supreme Court upholds Davis' death sentence. Davis had argued that his jailhouse confession was illegal because it was given without an attorney present, but the Court said that police can ignore a suspect's rights to counsel if they believe someone's life is in jeopardy. Davis can still lodge a habeas corpus appeal with the state, and then federal courts.

External links

• All About Polly Klaas and Richard Allen Davis, by Denise Noe
• Richard Allen Davis' Pen Pal Ad on LostVault