KERIS and SONDARIA DAVIS - 5 months(2011) and 11 months(1994)/ Convicted: Father; Daron Duane Davis - Greer SC

GREER, SC --  A 5-month-old girl is dead and the father charged with murder after the baby was taken off life support and died Sunday night.

Greenville County deputies say the investigation into the child’s injuries began on January 19 when Greer Police were asked the Sheriff’s Office to investigate the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The child’s grandmother is an employee with the Greer PD.

Deputies responded to Greenville Memorial and spoke with the child’s mother. The report states she told investigators the child’s breathing became erratic due to injuries she received. Doctors placed the child on life support at the hospital.

Investigators say Daron Duane Davis caused the child’s injuries, but they declined to elaborate on how the injuries occurred.

Davis was charged with abuse to inflict bodily injury upon a child.

The child is Davis’ biological daughter.

After the child was removed from life support Sunday, the charges were upgraded to murder.

For Davis, it is the second time he has been charged in the death of a child involving child abuse.

In 1994, records show Davis was charged with homicide by child abuse in Spartanburg  County.

Davis is currently being held at the Greenville County Detention  Center without bond. He pleaded guilty on that charge and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1996.

Click here to see details on the case.http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/jan/22/12/father-charged-injuring-five-month-old-ar-1373596/

Posters note: I wonder if the mother knew he had been locked up for killing the other baby.

Suspect In Baby's Death Killed Another Child In 1994

Man Pleaded Guilty To Prior Homicide By Abuse

POSTED: 3:37 pm EST January 24, 2011

Aman charged in the death of his 5-month-old daughter was previously convicted of homicide by child abuse, according to court records.

The Greenville County Sheriff's Office charged 42-year-old Daron Duane Davis, of Greer, with homicide by child abuse after the baby died on Sunday.

The arrest warrant said that Davis caused injuries to his daughter by using blunt force to her head. He was arrested on Monday.

Spartanburg County court records show that Davis was arrested in connection to with the death of a child in 1994. He pleaded guilty to the charge homicide by child abuse and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Murray Glenn, spokesman for the Seventh Circuit Solicitor, said that the sentencing guidelines for homicide by child abuse were different when Davis was sentenced in 1996 and allowed him to be eligible for parole.

Currently, if someone is convicted of homicide by child abuse, they arenot eligible for parole.News 4 is looking into the specifics of the preceding case and will update this page as information becomes available.Davis is being held at the Greenville County Detention Center Center, awaiting a bond hearing.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/26598692/detail.html

Man charged in infant's death has prior homicide by child abuse conviction

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A Greer man who has been charged with killing his 5-month-old daughter was convicted of homicide by child abuse in 1996 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to records.

Daron Duane Davis, 42, faces 20 years to life in prison if he is convicted on the new charge, according to the warrant.The girl was identified as Keris Davis, who died at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Greenville Hospital System Children’s Hospital. Davis is accused in a warrant of injuring his daughter’s head at 506 Poplar Drive in Greer. She was put on life support Jan. 19, Master Deputy Sam Cureton said.

Davis was initially jailed Friday, authorities said. Davis was rejected for parole four times between 2000 and 2005, according to Pete O’Boyle, spokesman for the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. "He just did his time and maxed out. He was never on parole," O'Boyle said. "He had hearings bur he never did parole. He would not have been eligible for parole on the 1994 charge of homicide by child abuse if the crime had occurred after 1995, when the state law was change," O'Boyle said.

Davis was not on supervised release or probation when he got out of prison, because he had finished serving the required time, O’Boyle said.

Ex-convict accused in second child's death awaits grand jury decision
Daron Duane Davis couldn't give an explanation of how his infant daughter was beaten to death, investigator testifies

5:17 PM, Aug. 2, 2011
Convict awaits grand jury decision: Duane Davis appeared before Judge Diane Cagle for a preliminary hearing on a charge of homicide by child abuse.

A Greer man who had already served time in prison for killing his infant daughter nearly two decades ago was in court today on charges that he abused and killed another infant daughter earlier this year.

Daron Duane Davis, who was released four years ago after serving a ten-year sentence, is charged with homicide by child abuse in the January death of 5-month-old Keris Davis.

Keris Davis was taken off life support days after authorities say her father broke her skull, and her father could give no explanation for how the injury happened, Greenville County Sheriff’s Investigator Chris Miller testified during a preliminary hearing today.

The mother, who was living with Daron Davis, didn’t play a part in the baby’s death, Miller testified.

The girl had been left with Davis when the mother went to work at her second-shift job, Miller testified. The next morning, she awoke and Davis told her the baby wasn’t breathing, Miller testified.

That morning, he testified, Davis had gone to drop another child off at a bus stop and returned 30 minutes later.

An autopsy showed that the baby had suffered severe head injuries that Miller testified a doctor later told him couldn’t have accidentally happened even if the baby had been dropped from a window onto concrete.

Thirteenth Circuit Defender John Mauldin elicited testimony that the baby had showed earlier medical problems of breathing trouble and that Davis’ statements about the timeline of events surrounding the death were consistent with the girl’s mother’s account.

Assistant Solicitor Christy Sustakovitch said that Davis had been evasive with investigators when they asked him to come to the law enforcement center to be interviewed about the death.

The girl’s 6-year-old sibling said in a forensic interview that Davis had turned on loud music to drown out the baby’s crying, Miller testified.

When asked by the interviewer why the baby was in the hospital, the sibling said “because she cried too much,” Miller testified.

An old sentencing law and work credits earned in prison allowed Davis to walk free less than 11 years after pleading guilty to homicide by child abuse in the death of his 11-month-old daughter in April 1994, authorities said.

Truth-in-sentencing laws didn't apply to Davis' first conviction in 1996, but he would have remained in prison until at least 2013 if they had, authorities said.

His 11-month-old daughter, Sondaria, died in April 1994.

Offenders who have been convicted of some of the state's most serious violent crimes have to serve 85 percent of their sentences but only if their crimes were committed in 1996 or later, 13th Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins said.

Davis was sentenced in 1996 to 20 years, the minimum for the offense. He worked a variety of jobs to earn credit toward an early, unconditional release.

The state Department of Social Services didn't become aware of the child until after she suffered the injuries that led to her death, agency spokeswoman Marilyn Matheus said.

The agency can step in when officials are made aware that a child is in a home with someone who has a criminal history, she said.

Child protective services rely on family members, medical professionals, law enforcement officers and the public to open investigations, Matheus said.

Greer police Lt. Jim Holcombe said that officers began the investigation into Keris' injuries but quickly asked Greenville County sheriff's deputies to take over because the girl's grandmother works at the Greer Police Department.

Davis entered the state prison system on April 18, 1996, and served most of his first two years at the maximum security Lieber Correctional Institution, Gelinas said.

He was sent to a medium security prison in Turbeville in April 1998, and in October of that same year went to another medium security prison in Ridgeville, Gelinas said.

Davis was transferred to a minimum security prison in Spartanburg in February 2006, where he stayed until his release on Nov. 1, 2006, Gelinas said.

He took anger management and substance abuse classes in his first year in prison and participated in adult education classes, Gelinas said.

Davis worked a variety of jobs, including brick-mason helper, senior warehouse assistant, food service aid, material cutter, custodial worker and ward keeper, Gelinas said.

Davis was rejected for parole four times between 2000 and 2005, according to Pete O'Boyle, spokesman for the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

"He just did his time and maxed out. He was never on parole," O'Boyle said. "He had hearings, but he never did parole."

He wouldn't have been eligible for parole on the 1994 charge of homicide by child abuse if the crime had occurred after 1995, when the state law was changed, O'Boyle said.

"He got in just before the sentencing law was changed," O'Boyle said. "So he was eligible for parole on his prior conviction."

The department doesn't keep written records of parole hearings, he said.

"There's no parole on murder convictions, and there isn't for homicide by child abuse now," he said.

Davis and Sondaria's mother went to trial in Spartanburg County in 1996. The trial ended with plea bargains before it got into the jury's hands. Davis pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse while maintaining that he didn't kill the girl, The News reported.

Davis wasn't on supervised release or probation when he got out of prison because he had finished serving the required time, O'Boyle said.

Restrictions can be put on convicts only when they are placed on probation, said Assistant 13th Circuit Solicitor Kris Hodge. Judges often split sentences, ordering prison and probation upon release.

Magistrate Diane Cagle passed charges against Davis along to a grand jury for consideration of an indictment.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20110802/NEWS/308020029/Ex-convict-accused-second-child-s-death-awaits-grand-jury-decision?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CGreer/Taylors

Man kills baby, gets out of prison, kills another

Daron Duane Davis sentenced for second death


UPDATED 5:31 PM EST Dec 06, 2012


Daron Duane Davis: Killed one daughter in 1996 and another in 2012.

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. - A man who killed his first daughter in 1995 and spent 11 years in jail was sentenced Thursday for killing a second daughter after his release.

Daron Duane Davis, of Greer, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Davis previously pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse in the death of his child, Sondaria Davis. She died after being beaten a month before her first birthday.

Davis was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His girlfriend, Sondaria’s mother, was also charged and was sentenced to probation.
Davis was released from prison in 2006 after serving about 11 years of his sentence.

He was arrested again in January 2011 after his 5-month-old daughter Keris Davis died of multiple head injuries from blunt force trauma and shaking.

At the time of Davis’ second arrest, Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins said sentencing laws have stiffened since Davis' previous homicide by child abuse conviction.

"Now, someone who is convicted of this crime or pleads guilty to this particular crime must pay 85 percent and then they become eligible for parole," Wilkins said.

If the current sentencing laws had existed when Davis was first convicted, he would have been in prison through at least 2012.

On Thursday, Davis was convicted of homicide by child abuse. This time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/local-news/greenville-news/Man-kills-baby-gets-out-of-prison-kills-another/-/9654794/17684272/-/efcan9z/-/index.html

His children don't live long enough to celebrate a birthday.

At least he won't be killing any more babies.