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tyler davis’ sentencing is off to a rocky start, with the defense attempting to argue in their opening that he is not guilty of malicious wounding, which isn’t really allowed considering he entered an alford plea.
they cleared the courtroom so a confidential evidentiary matter could be discussed 👀
this was immediately after the defense attempted to move the original FBI report on the assault into the record.
this was immediately after the defense attempted to move the original FBI report on the assault into the record.
the victim, deandre harris is not present today. he’s expressed in the past that he doesn’t want to come back to charlottesville or go through this again, but did not even respond to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office about today’s hearing.
the defense evidence so far has been another attempt to put the victim on trial, focusing on the conduct of harris and his associates that day, rather than the brutal beating davis participated in. i can’t blame harris for not wanting to do this again.
davis’ attorney is focusing on the “fighting words” exchanged between protesters and counter protesters as the groups moved down market street. “fighting words” is a legal term. it seems inapplicable here considering there’s no evidence davis was able to hear those exchanges.
interestingly, the defense said in opening that there will be a joint motion filed with the commonwealth to allow the 3 months davis has already served AND the one year he’s been on home electronic monitoring to count toward whatever sentence is imposed today.
the defense has said they’ll also ask the judge to consider allowing any additional sentence imposed to be served on home electronic monitoring, citing davis’ “exemplary conduct” over the last year.
another recess now after the defense’s presentation of evidence before they call their witnesses. they plan to call two family members to present character testimony, as well as play video testimony from davis’ son who could not be here.
the defense consists mostly of smearing the victim & pointing out that other people did more and worse violence than davis. it’s not strong.
he has pleaded guilty to maliciously wounding deandre harris. he struck a prone, unarmed man in the head with a wooden bat, likely causing the head injury that required eight staples to close. to say that that’s “all” he did is bizarre.
the defense also keeps pointing out that he didn’t do anything else wrong that day. imagine you got pulled over going 110 miles per hour in a school zone & then argued that you aren’t really that culpable because you drove a lot that day and only did that once.
his attorney has, numerous times, argued that davis “did nothing untoward or provocative,” contrasting this with video of the victim and his friends walking down a street exchanging words with white supremacists. so he was polite... until he nearly killed a man.
despite no argument from the commonwealth in favor of additional jail time, tyler davis will serve another two years and one month in jail for his participation in the brutal assault of deandre harris on august 12, 2017.
to be specific, judge moore imposed a sentence of 10 years with 7yrs, 2mo suspended. he also got credit for the 3 months he served in jail in early 2018 and half of the year he served on home electronic monitoring, crediting 9 months toward the 2yr, 10mo active sentence.
davis read a ten minute allocution. he says he’s left the league of the south and renounced his ways. he says talking to people of different backgrounds in jail forced him to see people for their stories, not their race. i think i believe him.
“the old tyler had to go to jail,” he said. he was “a raging, barely functioning drunk” and he got sucked into internet forums. “by day i was a comcast tech, but by night i was a crusading warrior defending my people and our way of life.”
he says he realizes now that by lashing out at his perceived enemies he was deflecting from the real enemy, himself. in jail, “i examined everything i had done and frankly i was not impressed.”
davis claims he is no longer “the angry person who came to charlottesville to cause chaos and mayhem to whose i saw as the enemy.”
“i know that doesn’t excuse what i did or take away the pain that i caused others. i just want to be better in the future.”
“i know that doesn’t excuse what i did or take away the pain that i caused others. i just want to be better in the future.”
i need to sit with this for a bit. i think we have to believe it’s possible that he’s telling the truth. we have to believe that deradicalization is possible. we have to believe that people are not their worst actions. if we truly believe we can win, we have to believe that.
like he said himself though, realizing now what he did was wrong doesn’t change that he did it. he wasn’t sentenced for what was or is in his heart. he was sentenced for the action that he took that day. it’s by luck alone that his blow did not kill deandre.
my complicated feelings as a prison abolitionist covering criminal trials aside, i’ll get back to the factual coverage of the hearing.
i was kind of surprised a reputable defense attorney went in so hard on the victim at this stage (a sentencing hearing after a guilty plea)
i was kind of surprised a reputable defense attorney went in so hard on the victim at this stage (a sentencing hearing after a guilty plea)
he showed a number of videos, none of which are new. most of the videos focused on harris & others walking down market street before the assault. again and again he showed the court footage of harris & several other black men shouting at white supremacists.
he says the environment that day was chaotic, that there was violence everywhere and that “some of that was behavior that mr harris engaged in.”
of the videos of the taunts exchanged between protesters and counterprotesters, engle said “one person not exchanging taunts is tyler davis.” luckily no one is on trial for being rude, we’re just trying to sentence someone for nearly killing a man.
in his recap of the videos he showed the court, engle described harris struggling to get up, having tripped after being pepper sprayed. “that is when he encounters mr davis.” hell of a way to describe having your head split open with a weapon.
engle spent a significant amount of time trying to establish that harris caused his own assault.
that’s not me editorializing. he said he thought the video of corey long & harold crews struggling over the flagpole is “highly relevant” to “WHY the violence erupted in the parking garage.”
while harris is in the eyes of the law not guilty of the assault against harold crews, having been acquitted last year, engle presented a great deal of evidence that he did in fact strike crews. i concede that he did a better job of proving that than the CA did at harris’ trial.
ultimately, as it relates to davis’ own crime, it doesn’t matter if harris hit crews. as the judge said during pronouncement of sentencing, “retaliation is not self defense and it is not not lawful.”
at some point during the presentation of evidence about how much he’s rehabilitated since his arrest, i turned to the reporter next to me and whispered “this is supposed to be what i WANT,” that is - rehabilitation and transformation without punitive incarceration.
i sit with a lot of discomfort when my work takes me to a courtroom. the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. the carceral state isn’t the solution here. but i’d be lying if i said i was sorry to see white supremacists taken off the streets.
i am desperate to believe deradicalization is possible, that rehabilitation is possible, that we are ready for a world where everyone understands punitive incarceration actually benefits no one...
i think the reason i felt physically ill hearing this case made by the defense is that maybe this thinking shouldn’t be put in to practice first in the case of what could’ve been a fucking lynching. a group of white men trying to beat a black man to death for a perceived crime.
