Guilty Verdict In Videotaped Sex Slay Case

Richard Davis Found Guilty Of Murdering Woman After Recording Her Sexual Torture

(AP)  A suburban Kansas City man was found guilty Thursday of murder in the videotaped sexual torture and slaying of a 41-year-old woman. He could be sentenced to death.

Richard D. Davis, 44, of Independence, was found guilty on 25 of 26 counts. He was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, and assault in the May 2006 slaying of Marsha Spicer, of Independence. He was convicted of kidnapping, rape, sodomy and assault in the attack of 36-year-old Michelle Huff-Ricci a month earlier.

On the night of April 9, the pair placed Huff-Ricci - by then fully conscious and clothed - in the back seat of a car and drove to rural Clay County. Davis got out with Huff-Ricci and told Riley to drive around until he sent a text message instructing her to return to the site, according to court documents.

Davis, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read, was acquitted on one count of first-degree assault related to the attack on Huff-Ricci. Her charred remains were found in neighboring Clay County, where Davis and his girlfriend, Dena Riley, are charged with capital murder for her April 2006 suffocation.

Riley also is scheduled to go to trial next year in Spicer's killing.

Jurors, who deliberated for less than four hours Thursday, will now determine whether Davis will face the death penalty. The sentencing portion of the trial was scheduled to begin Friday morning.

The key evidence in the case was videotapes that prosecutors say Davis and Riley made of the attacks on Spicer and Huff-Ricci to fulfill Davis' violent sexual fantasies. During the weeklong trial, jurors watched graphic DVD recordings taken from those tapes, one of which showed Spicer's death.

During closing arguments, assistant Jackson County prosecutor Tammy Dickinson told jurors that Davis held Spicer down at his apartment while Riley sat on Spicer's face and smothered her. She added that Davis and Riley thought they had made mistakes in the earlier sexual torture of Huff-Ricci and wanted to perfect their methods with Spicer.

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Read the sheriff's release on the pair's arrest.
Check out court documents and charges in the death of Marsha Spicer.

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Defense attorney Tom Jacquinot admitted that Davis killed Spicer but urged jurors to find him guilty of second-degree murder, which would have spared him a possible death sentence. Jacquinot argued that the slaying was not planned and that Davis simply became caught up in his own "horrible fantasies" about killing.

After the verdict was read, prosecutors declined to comment.

Jacquinot had little to say.

"We accept the verdict and respect the jury's decision, and now we'll move on to the sentencing part of the case," he said.

A cousin of Huff-Ricci, Lori Sell, said she was relieved that Davis was convicted of first-degree murder.

"He won't hurt no one else in the world like he did those two women."

Sell said she was one of the few members of the victims' families who remained in court while prosecutors showed jurors the DVD of the assaults. She couldn't see the images, but she said it was difficult to listen to the slaps and muffled screams.

Other family members of the victims left the courtroom without commenting.

Huff-Ricci's death came to light after Davis and Riley were captured in southwest Missouri following a five-day manhunt in May 2006 and brought back to the Kansas City area, where they were charged in Spicer's death. Police have said both defendants led investigators to Huff-Ricci's remains.

Riley and Davis also have been indicted in Kansas on a federal charge of kidnapping a 5-year-old southeast Kansas girl related to Davis after fleeing the Kansas City area.

[jt92202]

sick sick people in this world!!!

[deacon20081]

These animals have to be removed from the planet.

[staycalm]

Kill them.

[bdrlnt4rl]

burn them alive

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm...

There are times when "Like Punishment" ie: an eye for an eye, should be appropriate.

Refer to Deuteronomy 19:21, And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

This is one of those times, and Richard Davis best deserves torture in kind; to include everything he is guilty of doing to others.

[patriot12436]

I am only surprised it took a whole four hours. Makes me proud i came from this area.

[patriot12436]

h

[patriot12436]

t

[patriot12436]

t

[patriot12436]

t

[patriot12436]

t

[carlylaine]

Generally, I am against the death penalty...but this turns my stomach to the point that I''d check the electricity for the switch throwing, get the correct mix of chemicals, load the gun, sharpen the sword or guillotine, or whatever it takes to prepare for their deaths. I couldn''t do it, but I can prepare.

Disgusting sick perverted corrupt nonhumans. They will never understand.

[juwboy]

Why do s-a-d-i-s-t-s always slither out from under their rocks whenever stories like this are reported?

[slim1h2o]

juwboy;

I agree. These people are no better than these two perps.

[whiskyrokkr]

All I need is 1/2 hour with these two vermin.

[carlylaine]

juwboy

Some people do go too far...it doesn''t make sense to me for the vicious things they want to do to the accused...but the vulgar accused deserves the death penalty.

[patriot12436]

t

[whymayiask]

sizzle here... then sizzle there

[pat1967-2009]

The way I see it, this Dena woman was behind the entire thing and got this man to kill those other women out of petty jealousy.


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Posted by GOP_forever at 09:17 AM : Aug 01, 2008

Idiot

[newsjunky5]

"...but the vulgar accused deserves the death penalty."
---------------------
OK, I accuse you. Does that make it so?
Or would I have to be a politician to be believed?

[patriot12436]

t

[gatofeo]

I support burning at the stake for some particularly heinous crimes, including this one. Chain them to poles in the remote desert, pile wood around them, light it by remote control.
Not a single person should be around them as they die. I don''t want the chance of them seeing one single sympathetic eye.
Video cameras could secure the scene to ensure there are no attempts to rescue them.
Let them burn. Even this would be far quicker and humane than they made their victims endure.
Even if these two get the death penalty, it will take at least 8 years before they''re executed. The death penalty holds no fear anymore because it is rarely carried out -- and then after years, even decades.
No death penalty prisoner should be allowed to live longer than one year after sentencing, and most should be executed well before that.

[displeased]

Fry the baastard!

patriot12436, what does t mean?

[pat1967-2009]

Ugly Cat,

what would you have done with the wrongly accused. There are several cases of death row inmates being cleared of all charges because of new testing technology. Understand that I am not expressing my own opinion here. I am just asking you a question.

[pat1967-2009]

Ugly Cat,

what would you have done with the wrongly accused. There are several cases of death row inmates being cleared of all charges because of new testing technology. Understand that I am not expressing my own opinion here. I am just asking you a question.

[toldyouso12]

After the video tape, the only way there could have been an acquittal would have been if the perps were policemen.

[jennmarikp]

I do believe in the death penalty when there is absolute proof of guilt. People who do not believe in the death penalty should not have a comment/complaint about criminals being released back into society. If they were put to death it wouldn''t be an issue. If these two sick people are not given the death penalty there is a chance you or your loved one would be there victim in the future. FRY THEM TWICE!

[lkc15507]

Hermit, I think angryman55 was referring to another story in which a 22-year-old man was stabbed to death and beheaded while aboard a bus in Manitoba two days ago. I think that would be fairly just for these two.

[obamaisaho]

Just drop these two white trash roaches into a vat of hungry piranhas - alive - that will do the trick. No need for judges, attorneys and police.

[decemberx]

They were probably tweaked out of their tiny little white trash brains... hope neither of them has spawned. At least Missouri still has a legal form of execution.

[wellhell3]

Shoot ''em and send them straight to the hell they deserve.