Zachary Davis,15,indicted for killing his mom with a sledgehammer/Police say Davis set the house on fire & left his brother inside/Zachary will be tried as an adult for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder& aggravated arson.

Cops:
By HLNtv.com Staff
updated 9:41 PM EDT, Mon September 24, 2012

The Huffington Post | By Andy Campbell
Posted: 09/19/2012 11:06 am EDT

Zachary Davis, 15, will be tried as an adult in the sledgehammer murder of his mother.
A juvenile judge decided Tuesday that a 15-year-old who allegedly killed his mom with a sledgehammer and left his brother to die in a burning house will be tried as an adult.

The details in Zachary Davis' murder case were so gruesome that the Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge decided there was nothing that the juvenile system could do for the boy, WTFV reported.

"It was a horrific murder and the judge made the observation that it was a savage murder and that Zachary Davis could not be handled in the juvenile court," said county District Attorney, Ray Whitley.

An arrest affidavit obtained by WKRN states that on the night of Aug. 10, Davis bludgeoned his mother, Melanie, to death as she slept in her bed. He then allegedly went upstairs and started a fire in the family's game room, leaving his sleeping older brother to burn inside. His brother made it out alive.

Davis was arrested a short distance from his Hendersonville, Tenn. home, reportedly with a notebook containing a confession to the crime.

He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated assault after a mental health evaluation found he was fit to stand trial.

His attorney, Randy Lucas, called his client the real victim in a statement released on Tuesday.

"As devastating as is the senseless loss of a life, this case is even more tragic for the simple fact that Zack is also a victim here," Lucas wrote. "After Zack Davis' father died, in his presence, of a degenerative illness, being moved and isolated from extended family, Zack sent up every possible red flag a nine-year-old is able to articulate that he was depressed, disturbed, and sliding into a chasm of despair and frustration. And yet, he was failed at every turn by the school system, the child welfare system, the family and society.

"Zack Davis is truly lost in the system," he added.

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Zachary Davis, Tenn. teen who allegedly killed his mom with sledgehammer, will be tried as an adult

By Crimesider Staff Topics Daily Blotter
Zachary Davis, 15 (Credit: News Channel 5)
(CBS) HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. - Zachary Davis, a 15-year-old charged with using a sledge hammer to kill his mother, will be tried as an adult, reports CBS affiliate WTVF.

On Tuesday, WTVF reports that a Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge determined that due to Davis' significant emotional and mental problems, there was nothing that juvenile court could do for the teen.

"It was a horrific murder and the judge made the observation that it was a savage murder and that Zachary Davis could not be handled in the juvenile court and should go over to criminal court," said Sumner County District Attorney, Ray Whitley.

Davis allegedly used a sledge hammer to attack and kill his mother, Melanie Davis, while she was sleeping on the night of August 10, according to an affidavit obtained by WTVF. He then allegedly set the house on fire while his older brother was sleeping.

Police soon arrested him and said that he was carrying a notebook with him that held a letter confessing to the murder.

Randy Lucas, Davis' attorney, said in a statement on Tuesday that his client was also a victim in this tragic killing: "Any one person that encountered Zack - teachers, neighbors, immediate family - knew 'something' was deeply wrong. His school knew. His mother knew. But nothing was done."

Davis has been charged with first degree murder as well as a criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated arson. After the incident, he was taken to a juvenile holding facility where he has been awaiting trial.

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Why Did Teenager Zachary Davis Bludgeon His Mother Melanie Davis To Death?

By John Kays

When a mental picture appears in your mind of what Zachary Davis, 15, did to his own mom, Melanie Davis, 46, at around 11 PM on August 10th (in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which is located 18 miles northeast of downtown Nashville), internal mechanisms shut down (like Chernobyl). This is your own well-oiled conscience that prevents that real horror movie from playing freely in your head. That's not to say you don't realize it actually occurred!

'Cuz it did, and right in the Davis' home, which taken from news footage, looks substantially middle class and not too terribly extraordinary. But why did this teenager commit this brutal crime, of killing his own mother? Furthermore, why did Zachary choose a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice? And why this particular day of August 10th? What tumultuous forces brewed (like a unmerciful twister) in his addled mind?

Was Zachary Davis, whose mental condition was highly unstable already, possibly exposed to violent movies or video games? I just thought of the Saw franchise, which is particularly atrocious in the way it sensationalizes violence. If a young man such as Zachary were exposed to this type of sick entertainment, the consequences could be lethal, such as they already were, for other unenumerated reasons.

Well, perhaps we get some hint of Zachary's problems from a statement made by his attorney, Randy Lucas. Zachary's father died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2007 and apparently it was a long, drawn out process. I mean it was a slow death, and thoroughly traumatized the young Zack Davis. But what were his issues with his mother Melanie?

How did his mother Melanie Davis (who fared from Austria) get along with his father (whose name is not mentioned in the scant news reports available to us)? If for example, Melanie particularly loathed her husband, this would help to explain why a lethal breach in communications would fermented between Zack and his doomed mother. Yet I speak in hypotheticals, since nothing of this sort has been promulgated to the public (by way of the media).

Well, back to square one, since we're provided with so little evidence or information, other than Zachary took a sledgehammer to his mother, then set his brother's bedroom on fire. His brother survived, but Zack intended to kill him too. What grudge did he have against his little brother, if any at all? Perhaps the juvenile Davis is simply possessed with evil? This is a recurring theme of so many horror films, but I suspect there's a modicum of truth to this primitive Medieval-ism of Gothic superstitious.

Alright, so you know where I'm going with this! Okay, so I'm getting derailed, and off the coveted journalism train tracks a bit, but I'm capturing an angle that will piece together the puzzle succinctly, even if it's only a synthetic simulation of a psychologically penetrating mosaic (a euphemism for phony baloney). Zack is a reincarnation, of sorts, of Michael Myers from the 1978 John Carpenter horror masterpiece Halloween, starring a very young Jamie Lee Curtis.

I'm staring at the one available pic, published in the news, and Zack does look to be a trifle demonic or possessed by some evil spirit, unless my vivid imagination is photoshopping his visage with my own cranky cerebral software (which is the older but wiser edition of Adobe Photoshop)! Yet, why didn't all these teachers, neighbors, family, etc. see that Zack was becoming unhinged where he would enact a crazy plan to commit ungodly matricide?

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4:59 PM, Oct 5, 2012
Written by
Alexander Quinones

The defense attorney of a Hendersonville teen accused of killing his mother and attempting to kill his brother has argued that anyone who would have met his client would have spotted red flags that indicated Zachary Davis was going through a difficult time prior to the August murder.

“In fact, I have no doubt about that,” said Randy Lucas during an interview after Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge Barry Brown ruled in September that Davis should be tried as an adult.

Two prominent child psychologists were asked by Sumner A.M. to examine the Facebook profile page of 15-year-old Davis, which despite being under the alias of “Alex Freeman” was confirmed by police to have belonged to Davis.

Dr. Susan Bartell, who is a child psychologist and the author of the Top 50 Questions Kids Ask books, said Davis’ Facebook page and his profile picture, which is a Japanese Anime image graphically depicting a man severing a girl’s head, would have concerned her.

“I’d be pretty worried,” she said. “If a parent came to me with this Facebook, I would evaluate the kid for suicidal and homicidal ideation (thoughts).”

Davis’ profile page also has several violent images posted throughout.

Dr. Ed Christophersen, a staff child psychologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., said Davis’ Facebook would have certainly prompted clinical intervention.

“I would think that he was in serious need of psychiatric help,” he said.

Dr. Christophersen described Davis’ choice of imagery as “pathological” and would have told his parents to “make an appointment with a mental health professional immediately.”

Davis' case currently
Davis is currently at the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention facility in Murfreesboro and is expected to stay there throughout the remainder of court proceedings. According to District Attorney Ray Whitley, Brown wants Davis to be treated legally as an adult but custodially as a child.

Davis is reported to have admitted to killing his mother, Melanie Davis, with a sledgehammer while she was sleeping around midnight Aug. 10 and then setting the house on fire with gasoline and whiskey as accelerants while his older brother slept in his room. His brother was awoken by the smoke alarm and, unharmed, fled the house. Davis was found about six hours later, miles away from home in Gallatin with a letter in which he confessed to killing his mother and “leaving his brother to burn in the fire that he started,” according to an affidavit.

Whitley is expecting Davis will be indicted by a Sumner County grand jury on the three charges he is currently facing, first-degree murder, criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated arson,with an announcement of the indictment possible this week.

Lucas has called his client a “victim,” indicating that Davis was raped when he was younger and that having to watch his father die of Lou Gehrig's Disease five years earlier was very traumatic for him. Lucas said that Davis’ pleas for help were ignored by his mother and the Sumner County school system. Even if he had not said anything, anyone who would have met Davis would have known something was wrong, Lucas argued.

“His entire demeanor, his way of speaking, his total isolation from people; he had no friends, he had no extracurricular activities – all of those things I would think were markers of someone who is at least, particularly a child, who is at least having some difficulty that might benefit from intervention,” Lucas said.

Lucas admits police confirmed the Facebook profile in question as belonging to Davis, but he did not count it as one of the red flags he believes people should have spotted because he has not confirmed it for himself.

Maj. Don Linzy of the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment further on the case until it formally reaches the adult Criminal Court system.

What can be learned
Bartell said if Davis did indeed commit the crimes of which is he accused, then his case would certainly be on the extreme side of the spectrum of teenage behavior.

“Certainly suicidal type of behavior or dangerous, sexual behavior is not that unusual,” she said. “Dangerous drug and alcohol use, that kind of acting out, may not be as horrifying as murdering your mother, but if you pay attention to what’s going on in your kid’s life, you can make sure your kid doesn’t wind up in trouble like that.”

In terms of how should parents can approach their children when they spot online behavior that causes concern, she recommended simply asking questions: “I saw that profile picture showing violence, tell me about me about. Tell me where you got that from; what’s it about. Tell me the story.”

“Just be interested,” she suggests. “The way to approach it so that your kid doesn’t just block you out, basically, is to show interest, rather than criticism.”

She added parents should constantly show interest in a child’s life, even when the problems seem trivial.

“Because to them it’s important, and then when there’s something really important, they’re going to feel like I’m the person they want to talk to, because I am interested in their life,” she said, offering herself as an example since she is also a parent.

Bartell and Christophersen also emphasized that Facebook pages should not be judged just on their own.

“If it’s a perfectly normal kid, who’s never been in trouble in church or school or at home that puts some crazy pictures up on a website, that wouldn’t concern me nearly as much as if there’s a pattern of pathological behavior,” he said.

Both said parents should see if offline behavior parallels the child’s online activity.

And to help eliminate doubt, Christophersen highly recommended that families keep the same pediatrician for their children, so that a trained professional can also spot potentially troubling patterns.

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6:57 PM, Oct 11, 2012
Written by
Alexander Quinones
Gallatin News Examiner

The murder weapon police believe a 15-year-old used to kill his mother had symbols written on it, probably from a cryptic language from a video game, according to a court files released this week.

Zachary Everett Davis, was indicted last Thursday on first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson, the charges he had been facing in the death of his mother, Melanie Davis.

Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge Barry Brown ruled in September that Davis should be tried as an adult. Davis was arrested on Aug. 11, approximately six hours after Davis’ 16-year-old brother had discovered their mother killed in their Hendersonville house around midnight on Aug. 10. Zachary Davis was found walking in Gallatin, several miles from his Hendersonville home, with a notebook containing a confession letter. Davis has also reportedly confessed to the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office that he killed his mother and tried to kill his brother by lighting the house on fire with gasoline and whiskey, according to previous reports and court records.

According to case records, police also found Davis with a backpack containing a laptop, World of Warcraft computer games, more than 100 additional video games, a zombie survival guide book, a box with two mallets, bolt cutters and a pipe wrench.

At the scene, police recovered the sledgehammer that investigators believe was used to kill Melanie Davis and found it had “several symbols of unknown meaning written on both side of (its) handle.”

Investigating Detective Wes Martin wrote in an affidavit, “Through investigation the symbols appear to be part of a made up language invented for a video game.”

Martin also wrote that Davis’ computer and games were probably used to research the language, though a particular game was not mentioned as being the source.

On his Facebook profile, Davis has graphic images from Japanese anime and such games as “Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies” and “Silent Hill 2,” both of which have themes of death.

Davis’ attorney, Randy Lucas, tried unsuccessfully to keep him from being tried as an adult. At Davis’ competency hearing on Sept. 11, an expert from Volunteer Behavioral Services testified. The media was not allowed to attend, but Brown said based on the expert’s testimony and the details of the case, he determined Davis was competent to stand trial.

According to court documents, Assistant District Attorney Tara Wyllie, for the state, said her case against Davis will show that Davis killed his mother and does not need to be institutionalized in a mental hospital.

Davis is currently at the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention facility in Murfreesboro. His arraignment in Sumner County Criminal Court before Judge Dee David Gay is scheduled for Oct. 26.

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Posted: Sep 18, 2012 3:14 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 18, 2012 4:35 PM CDT

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn.- A juvenile judge has decided that a 15-year-old charged with killing his mother will be tried as an adult.

On Tuesday, a Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge showed little sympathy to Zachary Davis, saying it's clear the teen has significant emotional and mental problems. He determined that there was nothing juvenile court could do for Davis after hearing some of the gruesome details of how police said he murdered his own mother.

"It was a horrific murder and judge made the observation that it was a savage murder and that Zachary Davis could not be handled in the juvenile court and should go over to criminal court," said Sumner County District Attorney, Ray Whitley.

According to an affidavit obtained by News Channel 5 Davis used a sledge hammer to attack and kill his mother Melanie Davis while she was sleeping. He then locked the door behind him, set the house on fire while his older brother was asleep. When police caught up with him later they said he had a notebook with a letter in it, confessing to the murder.

Davis was charged with first degree murder as well as a criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated arson. After the incident he was taken to a juvenile holding facility where he has been awaiting trial.

Statement From 15-Year-Old Zack Davis’ Attorney

Posted: Sep 18, 2012 3:16 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 18, 2012 3:16 PM CDT

"The murder of Melanie Davis is an unimaginable personal tragedy for all who knew and loved her and the brutality of the crime touches every one of us on a human level.

As devastating as is the senseless loss of a life, this case is even more tragic for the simple fact that Zack is also a victim here. After Zack Davis' father died, in his presence, of a degenerative illness, being moved and isolated from extended family, Zack sent up every possible red flag a nine-year-old is able to articulate that he was depressed, disturbed, and sliding into a chasm of despair and frustration. And yet, he was failed at every turn by the school system, the child welfare system, the family and society.

Any one person that encountered Zack—teachers, neighbors, immediate family—knew ‘something' was deeply wrong. His school knew. His mother knew. But nothing was done.

Now, transferred to the adult criminal justice system, he will get nothing in the way of rehabilitation, medication, or counseling.

Zack Davis is truly lost in the system.

At age –barely—15.

We need to ask ourselves as a society if this is the way we want to handle troubled youthful offenders, and we most certainly need to work with schools to better identify troubled children who are crying out for someone to hear them."

-Randy P. Lucas
LUCAS LAW FIRM

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I must say this is a tough one. No doubt this kid was messed up. However, many kids have horribly traumatic childhoods and don't end up murdering. I think of little Christian Fernandez as well at only 13.

Teen's mental state to play key role in verdict
Feb 7, 2013
Written by
Dessislava Yankova
Gallatin News Examiner

A psychiatrist will assist the defense team of the Hendersonville teen who is accused of murdering his mother with a sledgehammer and attempting to kill his sleeping 16-year-old brother in August.

Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay granted on Thursday, Jan. 31 a motion by Zachary Davis’s attorney, Randy Lucas, to have the state pay for a psychiatrist to assist the defense until and during the week-long trial scheduled to begin Dec. 9.

A former Station Camp High School student, Davis, 15, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson for allegedly killing his mother, Melanie Davis, on Aug. 10 and trying to set fire to his home while his brother was sleeping.

Following his arrest, Davis reportedly confessed to Sumner County Sheriff's Office investigators that he had killed his mother with a sledgehammer and then tried to kill his brother by lighting the house on fire using gasoline and whiskey, according to previous reports and court records.

Third mental health expert to examine Davis
The new mental-health expert will be the third to examine Davis since he was arrested the night of incident. Davis’s mental health was first examined by Dr. Sandy Phillips with Volunteer Behavioral Services. That led to Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge Barry Brown to determine that Davis could be tried as an adult.

Following Davis’s arraignment in October 2012, Lucas requested another examination by a state mental health expert, saying his client was not “legally competent.” He also questioned the teen’s competency to stand trial and his sanity at the time of the incident.

Lucas said he requested the expert help “because (Davis’s) mental health issues are going to be the key issues in this case.”

The attorney has previously said that anyone who would have met Davis would have known the teen was troubled.

Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant District Attorney Tara Wyllie, agreed Davis’s mental state will play a major role in the trial.

Whitley said he supports Lucas’ request for an expert assistance.

“I want to make sure that we can have a fair trial,” he said.

A main element to be determined will be whether Davis had or lacked the mental capacity to premeditate the crime he is charged with. A first-degree murder charge requires that the defendant planned the crime, Whitley said.

Davis is next scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 14 for a review hearing. He remains at the Sumner County Jail with no option to post bond.

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