Ex-wife testifies Davis could drink 'a gallon a day'

By Andrew Knittle

Prosecutors rested their case against William Eugene Davis Friday morning in Cleveland County District Court, wrapping up with testimony from an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation criminalist who said Davis' DNA was found on the shotgun believed to have been used to kill three women in September 2007 at a home in Norman.

OSBI criminalist Antje Stambaugh told the court Davis' DNA was found on the stock, receiver and barrel of a Winchester shotgun found at the crime scene more than two years ago. She said the odds the DNA -- extracted from blood left on the weapon -- belonged to somebody other than Davis were roughly one in 4.5 quadrillion.

The court also learned that Davis' blood-alcohol level was .308 -- a figure the prosecution is set to challenge with a rebuttal witness when the trial resumes Tuesday -- or more than three times the legal limit when he was admitted into Norman Regional Hospital with extensive facial injuries following the shootings.

Davis is accused of killing Tami Link, 52, Sheila Ellis, 56, and Letannah Bishop, 87, on Sept. 4, 2007, at Link's Norman home, 1517 Oklahoma Ave.

Defense lawyers, who say Davis was too drunk to have intended to kill the three women, opened their case by calling Cheryl Davis, Davis' ex-wife, who testified that her former spouse's behavior could change "from night to day" when he drank. She said his drink of choice was vodka.

"He could drink a gallon a day," she said.

Cheryl Davis said Davis' behavior was hard to predict once the drinking started.

"It would change all the time," she said. "Sometimes he would be aggressive, sometimes he would cry.

"Normally he was funny ... he wasn't funny when he drank."

Married several years ago for 18 months, Cheryl Davis testified that Davis never harmed her during their marriage and that she "wasn't frightened at all" when he would act aggressively once he was drunk.

For years, Davis sought treatment for his alcoholism but frequently relapsed following periods of sobriety.

He seemed to be following that pattern before the murder of the three women, who died of shotgun wounds.

Dr. Zuorong Lin, a psychiatrist who treated Davis beginning in May 2007 at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, said he was prescribing his patient a variety of medications for anxiety, bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting deaths of Link, Ellis and Bishop. He said Davis showed up drunk to an Aug. 1, 2007, appointment, telling him he'd been drinking for three weeks straight and that he'd consumed a half-gallon of vodka before showing up at the hospital.

Lin said he tried to convince Davis to stay, but that he took off before sheriff's deputies arrived.

"He was a voluntary patient," he said. "We could not keep him there."

Lin said he saw Davis one last time, a couple of weeks before the Sept. 4, 2007, shootings on Oklahoma Avenue.

Dr. Kenneth Watson Jr., an emergency room doctor at NRH, was the first physician to see Davis when he arrived at the hospital. He said the left side of Davis' face was "extremely bruised and swollen," noting that X-rays showed an orbital fracture as well as a broken cheekbone and sinus.

Davis' facial injuries were so severe and bloody, Watson said, that medical staff checked to see if he'd been shot "because we'd been told he was coming from the scene of a shooting."

Watson said Davis' blood-alcohol level was .308 and that he could smell alcohol when he removed a breathing tube from Davis' throat and mouth. He also said that benzodiazepines, which include sedatives Xanax and Valium, were found in a sample of Davis' urine.

After the jury had been excused for the day Friday afternoon, defense attorneys tried and failed to get a recording of Davis -- made while he was a prisoner at the Cleveland County Detention Center -- heard in court, although they had it admitted so it may be used further down the line in an appeal, should there be one.

Prosecutors said the recording is self-serving and its authenticity couldn't be proved by the defense.

Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley, who listened to the recording in her chambers, agreed with prosecutors.

"It is not the sort of recording that is highly reliable," she said. "He had talked to detectives and (he) knew what he was accused of."

Judge Walkley also ordered prosecutors to give defense attorneys the name and contact information of a witness who is expected to rebut the significance of Davis' blood-alcohol level -- which was reported by medical doctors to be .308 shortly after the shootings.

Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn is seeking the death penalty.

The trial resumes Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com

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