James Davis was executed by the State of Texas for a triple murder
According to court documents James Davis would break into the home of his neighbors where he would sexually assault fifteen year old Evet Johnson. Davis would then murder her and her two younger brothers Tyrone Johnson, 6; and Tony Johnson, 3,
James Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
James Davis would be executed by lethal injection on September 9 1997
James Davis Photos
James Davis Case
A 13-year-old boy who feigned sleep while three members of his family were beaten to death with a lead pipe said the children had warned their mother about the suspect, a next-door neighbor.
Police Sunday were holding James Carl Lee Davis, 21, without bond on capital murder charges in what one policeman described as the city’s most brutal homicide since the 1966 Tower shootings
Officials said Davis, who was unemployed and had no criminal record, would undergo psychiatric examination.
The children’s mother, city employee Pauline Johnson, 35, was visiting a friend at the time of the killings.
‘This is so unreal, so crazy,’ she said. ‘This seems like a bad nightmare.’
Police Sgt. Lloyd Sigler said officers responded to a call about 1 a.m. Saturday at a northeast Austin duplex and found Yvette Johnson, 15; Tyrone Johnson, 6; and Tony Johnson, 3, dead from blows to the head.
Investigators said the suspect entered the house through an unlocked back door and slipped into the bedroom of Angela Barnado, 14, a cousin of the slain children.
‘I looked into his eyes and they had a demon look in them,’ Miss Barnado said. ‘He didn’t say a word. He just started hitting me. I tried to hit him with a glass that was on the night stand but he smashed my finger.
The girl said her screaming woke up the other children and their commotion diverted the suspect’s attention while she fled.
A brother of the victims, Timmy Johnson, 13, told investigators he pretended to be asleep while the suspect beat the other children to death. The Travis County Medical Examiner reported Yvette Johnson was raped before she was killed.
Timmy Johnson said the children had been spooked by the suspect since he had moved into the duplex next door to live with his mother.
‘He’d tell us he’d killed for money,’ Timmy Johnson said. ‘It sort of messed with your brains the way he’d look at you.’
Police arrived at the scene, then went next door and arrested Davis, who led them to a 2-foot length of lead pipe bearing traces of blood and hair, buried in the Johnsons’ back yard.
‘As far as the fierceness of the attack is concerned, I’d have to say it was the most brutal I’ve ever worked,’ said Sgt. Ron McDavid. ‘These children were defenseless. That’s what was so brutal about it.’
Officers said it was the worst homicide in the state capital since Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman climbed into the tower at University of Texas and killed 13 people with a rifle before police shot him dead
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/03/04/Three-children-beaten-to-death-two-escape/5031447224400/
