SHANIA AMBRIEHL GRAY - 16 yo/ Franklin Davis - Carrollton (NW of Dallas) TX

Police Believe Missing Teenager’s Body Found

By Susy Solis & Andy Garcia, CBS 11 News
September 8, 2012 4:49 PM

Updated at 8:30 p.m: The Carrollton Police Department has been notified that a body recovered in Irving near the Trinity River is believed to be the missing 16-year-old, Shania Gray. Police are waiting on an official identification of the body from the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office.

CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) - The Carrollton Police Department is asking for help in finding a teenager who went missing on Thursday.

Jon Stovall with the Carrollton Police Department released a statement on Saturday that said 16-year-old Shania Ambriehl Gray was last seen on Thursday around 4:00 p.m. at Hebron High School in Carrollton.
Police Believe Missing Teenagers Body Found

16-year-old Shania Ambriehl Gray was last seen on Thursday afternoon at Hebron High School in Carrollton. (courtesy: Carrollton Police Department)

Gray is listed as being 5’02 and weighing 130 pounds. Police believe Grey was wearing a black Nike hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants along with black Nike shoes at the time she went missing.

Grey’s family and friends have not had contact with her since the end of the school day on Thursday.

The Carrollton Police Department has asked that that if anyone has information about Grey’s whereabouts to call (972) 466-3333.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/09/08/police-searching-for-missing-teenager/

Shania Gray Murdered: Franklin Davis Allegedly Kills Teen Scheduled To Testify In Rape Trial

By JAMIE STENGLE and NOMAAN MERCHANT
09/10/12 06:13 PM ET AP

CARROLLTON, Texas — A Texas man accused of raping a 16-year-old girl used social media to lure her to a meeting, abduct her from her school and drive her to a river, where he killed her to keep her from testifying against him, police and a family spokeswoman said.

The man insisted in a jailhouse interview Monday that he only wanted to talk to the teen and prove his innocence but said he was overcome by "demons" once they were face-to-face.

Franklin B. Davis, 30, of the Dallas suburb of Irving, was charged with capital murder Sunday in the death of Shania Gray. Gray was last seen alive Thursday afternoon at Hebron High School in nearby Carrollton. Her body was found Saturday in a secluded area near the Trinity River.

Carrollton police say Davis confessed to arranging a meeting with Gray under false pretenses, driving her to a trail near the river and shooting her twice with a .38-caliber pistol. According to an arrest affidavit, Gray fell into the river and called Davis by his nickname: "Why, Wish?"

Davis told police he then stepped on her neck until she stopped breathing, the affidavit said.

Carrollton police spokesman Jon Stovall said in an email that police believe Davis killed Gray because she was about to testify against him.

A spokeswoman for Gray's family, Sherry Ramsey, told The Dallas Morning News that Gray met Davis when she babysat his two children. Ramsey said that later, after the teen declined many requests to babysit, Gray told her grandmother that Davis had raped her.

The crime was reported to Mesquite police, and Davis was charged with four counts of sexual assault of a child. The trial was scheduled to start next month.

Ramsey said Davis had warned Gray he would kill her if she told anyone about the assault.

According to an arrest warrant, Davis contacted Gray through social media and pretended to be someone else in an attempt to get information about the sexual assault case. Davis then used a pre-paid cellphone to set up a meeting with Gray at her high school on Thursday.

Davis told WFAA-TV in a jailhouse interview that he tracked Gray down because he wanted to prove his innocence in the sexual assault case.

"I needed to get some kind of evidence, some kind of proof myself to show I did not have sex with her and that she's lying," Davis told the television station. He said he didn't intend to harm Gray but was overcome in the moment.

"I was fighting demons," Davis told the station. "It was like a different person was in me. It wasn't me."

Davis told authorities that Gray was surprised to see him but got into his car when he told her he wanted to talk to her about the sexual assault case. He said he then drove her to the remote area.

Stovall said police believe Gray was killed within an hour after she was picked up.

Karen Permetti, spokeswoman for the Lewisville Independent School District, told The Associated Press that Gray had enrolled at Hebron High School on Wednesday and attended school for two days. She was a junior.

Permetti said district officials weren't aware of any threats against Gray and heard about her upcoming testimony only after her parents filed a police report Friday.

Davis was being held in the Dallas County jail on $2 million bond. Attorneys listed for him did not return messages left Monday by The Associated Press.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/shania-gray-murder-franklin-davis-testify_n_1871051.html

Franklin Davis Confesses to Shania Gray's Murder
Police say teenager killed to silence her before sexual assault trial

By Frank Heinz and Kendra Lyn
Tuesday, Sep 11, 2012
Updated 1:00 AM CDT

Franklin Davis, 30, is being held on a $2 million bond after confessing to the slaying of a Carrollton teenager.

Shania Gray, a 16-year-old student athlete at Hebron High School, was killed Thursday, two days before a cyclist found her body along the Trinity River, police said.

Carrollton investigators said Gray was killed to prevent her from testifying in the sexual assault case she had pending against him. Mesquite police said Davis had sex with Gray four times in 2010 when she was 14 years old while she was babysitting his children.

Davis was arrested in July 2011 and posted bond the next month.

According to an affidavit released Monday, Gray's mother, Sherry James, reported her daughter missing Friday when the girl never returned home from school. James told police she was supposed to pick up her daughter at about 4 p.m. Thursday but had been unable to find her.

Gray, a recent transfer from Mesquite's Horn High School, had only attended Hebron for two days.

According to Davis' confession in the affidavit, he picked up Gray on Thursday afternoon and drove her to the trail head at Champion Trail near Valley View Lane and Interstate 635.

Davis told police Gray spotted a .380 pistol in his possession along the way and asked if he was going to hurt her. He said he told the girl he only wanted to talk about the case. Once at the trail head, Davis led Gray down the trail to the Trinity River, where he shot her twice with the pistol, he told police. Davis told police that the teenager asked him, 'Why?' as she partially fell into the Trinity River, clinging to life, before he strangled her with his foot.

In the affidavit, Davis said he won Gray's trust with a fake social media profile and a prepaid phone. Posing as someone else, he convinced Gray to meet him at the school, he said. Davis told police that when he arrived at the school, Gray was surprised to see him.

In evaluating Gray's cellphone records, detectives learned in the days leading up to her disappearance and slaying that Davis and Gray had been in contact as recently as Thursday. The records also revealed that Davis and Gray's phones were in the same area at the same time -- at Hebron High School -- at about 4 p.m. Thursday.

After waiving his rights and confessing to the girl's murder, Davis led police to several locations to recover evidence of the crime, according to the affidavit.

Carrollton police said they never issued an Amber Alert for Gray's disappearance Friday because there wasn't any evidence to indicate she was in danger.

"At that point in the investigation, until we found the body, [there] really wasn't any evidence that anything had happened to her," said Jon Stovall, Carrollton police spokesman. "It didn't meet the elements of Amber Alert, anyway, for that. So once we got to the point where we that she wasn't a runaway, we got enough information, we requested assistance from the media in locating her. Literally in minutes of us doing that, her body was found in Irving."

Police said there is no indication that any one else is involved in the teenager's death.

Friends in Disbelief Over Teen's Slaying

On Monday, grief counselors were at Horn High in Mesquite, where Gray attended school until this year.

There was a candlelight vigil for her outside of the school at 7 p.m. Monday night.

"Thank all of you," said Dwayne James, Gray's stepfather. "It means a lot to me and my family, and it means a whole lot to Shania. God bless Shania."

"The Lord must need another choir member in his heavenly choir, and he looked down on Shania and summoned her on home," W.R. Willis, pastor of Calvary Temple, said at the vigil.

Former classmates and coaches said they were devastated by such a tragic loss of such a promising teenager.

"I miss Shania so much. It's just not fun without her here, because she made everyone laugh and was just so happy. It's going to be so different without her here," said 10th-grader Destinee Harris.

Harris fought back tears of grief before school. She said Gray had a huge effect on her friends in her two years at Horn High.

"I'll miss her smile," she said. "She always came to class smiling. She was just so energetic. She loved to sing. She was a beautiful singer."

"She wouldn't have just gotten in willingly," Marquis Jones said of Gray getting into Davis' car.

"There's a lot of anger, a lot of emotions, but at the same time, just a lot of sadness," said Shelby Holland, Horn JV girls basketball coach.

Holland said the team is trying to focus on Gray's life, not the horrific details of her death.

"Focusing on a man like that, or the likes of a man like that, is not how we want to remember her," she said. "We want to spend our time talking about the hugs she was constantly giving out, the wonderful life she held for us while she was here. To see the kind of kid she was and that untapped potential for the kind of woman she would become -- it's just sad to sit here and think, 'We'll never know what kind of great young woman she'd become.'"

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Franklin-Davis-Confesses-to-Shania-Grays-Murder-169171556.html

Texas father who murdered babysitter, 16, to stop her testifying that he raped her is now facing death penalty

Revenge: Franklin Davis, pictured, has admitted to killing 16-year-old
Shania Gray and was found guilty of capital murder on Tuesday

Franklin Davis was convicted of capital murder in the death of 16-year-old babysitter Shania Gray on Tuesday
He admitted in court to killing Gray, describing how he lured her into his car outside her school, shot her and dumped her body in a river

But he said he killed her out of revenge and hatred, not to obstruct the sexual assault case that was nearing trial
The jurors who found Davis guilty will now decide whether to sentence him to death or life imprisonment without parole eligibility[/b]


PUBLISHED: 01:52 EST, 13 November 2013 | UPDATED: 06:09 EST, 13 November 2013




A Texas father is facing a possible death sentence after he was convicted Tuesday of shooting dead his children's babysitter to prevent her testifying that he raped her.

Franklin Davis, 31, from Dallas, admitted in court to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray, describing how he lured her into his car outside her school, shot her and dumped her body in a river.

But he said he killed her out of revenge and hatred, not to obstruct the sexual assault case that was nearing trial.

The jurors who found Davis guilty of capital murder will now decide whether to sentence him to death or life imprisonment without parole eligibility. Testimony in the penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

Gray was remembered after her death as a vivacious, friendly girl who often played basketball in the driveway of her Carrollton home. [/size]

Most people did not know she was at the center of the sexual assault case against Davis.

Her mother told police in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite that Davis sexually assaulted Gray while she was looking after his children.

Davis, known by the nickname 'Wish,' exposed himself and had sex with the girl four separate times in 2011, according to a police affidavit.

Davis continued to deny the allegations at his murder trial.

Scroll down for video


Revenge: Franklin Davis, pictured, has admitted to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray and was found guilty of capital murder on Tuesday







Revenge: Davis, pictured in court on Tuesday, said he killed Shania Gray out of revenge and hatred,
not to obstruct the sexual assault case that was nearing trial



Tragic: Shania Gray, pictured, was lured her into Davis' car outside her school, shot and her body
dumped in a river


'She lied,' Davis said on the stand, according to Dallas television station KTVT. 'She ruined my life. She took everything from me, everything I work so hard to get. She took it.'

In the days before he killed Gray, Davis called and sent her text messages pretending to be a boy and asking her questions about the sexual assault case. 
 
The day of the killing, Gray got a text message saying her new friend was outside her school to surprise her.
Davis' defense attorneys argued that he was trying to do his own investigation after police did not.
But prosecutors scoffed at that notion.


Revenge: Franklin Davis, pictured, has admitted to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray and was found guilty of capital murder on Tuesday






Scheme: In the days before he killed Gray, pictured, Davis called and sent her text messages pretending
to be a boy and asking her questions about the sexual assault case



Raped: Gray's mother told police in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite that Davis sexually assaulted her daughter, pictured, while she was babysitting his children


'You know it, I know it and he knows it,' prosecutor Russell Wilson told jurors, according to The Dallas Morning News.

In December 2012, while awaiting trial, Davis stole a deputy's gun, fled a Dallas hospital and held police at bay for nearly two hours before surrendering peacefully and returning to the medical center, officials said at the time.

The then-30-year-old surrendered shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday December 4 and was returned to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital from which he had escaped about 8.30 p.m. while receiving treatment, according to Dallas County sheriff's spokeswoman Carmen Castro.

Castro said she did not know what kind of treatment Davis was receiving.

Dallas police tactical squad officers surrounded the Carrollton man about 9 p.m. after he sought refuge in a van about a mile from the hospital, Castro said.


Death penalty: Davis, pictured, is now facing a possible death sentence after being convicted Tuesday
Negotiations finally resolved the standoff peacefully, she said and the deputy was uninjured in the incident at the hospital.




Revenge: Franklin Davis, pictured, has admitted to killing 16-year-old Shania Gray and was found guilty of capital murder on Tuesday

Davis was in custody awaiting trial in Gray's September death, He had been charged with four counts of sexually assaulting Gray when he took Gray from her school.

Police said Davis confessed to killing the girl, and he did again during his trial. Police say he killed her to prevent Gray from testifying against him in a sexual assault case, though he said it was purely out of hatred and revenge.

Family and friends had said that when she was killed Gray's family was in the process of moving from one Dallas suburb to another so her father could be closer to work.


School: The day of the killing, Gray got a text message saying her new friend was outside her school,
sophomore at Hebron High School in Carrollton, pictured, to surprise her

According to relatives and an affidavit released by Carrollton police, Davis posed as a teenage boy on the Facebook social media page and bought a new cell phone to contact Gray and get information about the sexual assault case.

The two exchanged text messages, though Carrollton police spokesman Jon Stovall said he didn't know how many.

Davis told Carrollton police Gray was surprised to see him when he pulled up to her outside her school but got into his car because he wanted to discuss the case.

He told police and several television stations that he drove her to an area near the Trinity River and shot her twice. He then stepped on her neck until she stopped breathing, the affidavit said. Her body was found two days later.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2505042/Texas-father-Franklin-Davis-murdered-babysitter-16-raped-faces-death-penalty.html#ixzz2vy0Ab7uR

What an evil SOB. 

Texas is known for liberally imposing the death penalty and is not reluctant to carry it out.