First witness of the day is Chief Deputy Marcus Davenport. He is with the Greenville County Sheriff’s office. He is second in command after the sheriff. He’s been with the office for 24 years come December. 
In January of 2017 he was a major at the sheriffs office. That would be the third in charge position. Davenport identities Lewis.
Davenport confirms that Lewis won the primary for sheriff in 2016. Also confirms Lewis did not have a challenger in the general election.
Davenport says he first met Savanah Nabors during a transitional meeting. Says his first impression of her was that she was young.
Davenport now testifying to benefits and perks Nabors received as part of her job. Says vehicle, iPad, phone, etc. Says the car was a brand new Ford Explorer.
Says Nabors also had a reserved spot in the LEC parking lot. Says Nabors began showing up at “a couple different crime scenes.”
Davenport testifying to crime scenes now. Says it’s important to preserve the scene, calls it “no man’s land.” Says only techs and investigators would go into the scene. Says they keep others out for contamination purposes.
Davenport says he saw Nabors and Lewis interacting on a daily basis, describes their relationship and friendly and familiar. Says Nabors would call him by his first name which was unusual.
Davenport now talking about the BMW performance track. Says he scheduled the trip as a team building exercise for himself, Lewis, the county administrator, and former deputy chief. Says Lewis brought Nabors even though she wasn’t scheduled.
Davenport now moving onto discussions about the budget trip to Charlotte. Says Lewis said out of town was so they could work on what they needed to work on without distraction. Says they were meant to drive to Charlotte for this retreat. They went to the Hyatt place hotel.
Davenport says the trip was placed on his card. Says 3 employees from the sheriff’s office were put on his card. Says this card is issued by county square and the funds to pay it come out of travel and training fund for the sheriff’s office budget.
Says ultimately this money is the public’s money.
Davenport now looking at receipts from the trip. He confirms they are accurate to the best of his knowledge. State moves to enter them into evidence.
Davenport says the purpose of the budget trip was to try and get a raise for deputies and to get fleet vehicles updated. Says the county administrator arrived and two of his assistants were there as well. Says they sat in the lobby when they arrived ordering food and drinks.
Says Lewis and Nabors were also there. Says after the hotel bar closed they walked to a nearby Irish pub. Says they continued to drink. Says conversation there was casual.
Says he was the last out of the pub. Says when they left it appeared Lewis had stumbled down. Wasn’t sure what happened. They then went back to the hotel. Says they all got on the elevator and that he went back to his room. Says Lewis and Nabors were both still on the elevator.
Says the following morning Nabors was not present at the actual budgetary meeting. Says they started talking and then left to get some coffee. Says this was about 30 minutes of conversation.
Says Nabors had made some packets and notes about what they were to discuss but she was not there to explain the packets. State shows the packet labeled “salary proposal.”
Says the goal for lieutenants was to get them up to $63.4K a year. Says Nabors was still not with them at this point when they left to get coffee. Says he saw Nabors on the way back. Says she looked disheveled, maybe had too much to drink.
Says at this point they continued to talk about salary and vehicles. Says this lasted a couple hours. Says at this time the trip was insignificant to him. “Normal business” he says.
Davenport says during all of this Nabors seemed normal. Says plan for evening was to get dinner and then go out for drinks.
Says he didn’t know anything was wrong with Nabors. Says another employee mentioned there may be a problem and then says she didn’t report back to work. Says he didn’t think about it further than an employee just quitting.
Says that’s when Nabors’ blog post came out. Says Lewis denied any sexual interaction with her several times.
Direct examination of Davenport is complete. Wise now takes over for cross examination.
Davenport says the budget meeting was successful. Says they achieved their goals. Says county council also must approve spending.
Wise has Davenport identify a photo of everyone from the Charlotte trip. Says it’s from the second night. Now talking about a photo of himself and Nabors where she looks happy. Says he didn’t notice anything strange about her demeanor.
Now talking about crime scenes again. Says if Nabors had walked through the crime scene she would have appeared on a log. Says it’s different walking through a crime scene than just being at a crime scene.
Wise asks about county issued cars for civilians. Says victim advocates are the only other ones who have them. Cross is now finished. Redirect happening.
Brackett now asking on redirect about the victim advocates and their vehicles. Davenport says these people are essentially on call at all hours of the day. Now asking about PIO’s (public information officers). Primary job to deal with media.
Says neither Nabors or Lewis seemed upset when the previous photo was shown. Also says the meeting in Charlotte was beneficial because the county administrator “got to know” Lewis on this trip.
Redirect done. Now on re-cross.
Very short. Davenport is now excused.
