KC man guilty -- again -- of abandoning corpse

Matthew C. Davis has been found guilty of abandoning the body of his girlfriend, Amber McGathey, after she died from a drug overdose back in 2004. (The body was found in a car in River Market, about a week after McGathey died.) This is actually the second time that Davis has been found guilty. The last time, he entered a guilty plea -- but that was thrown out earlier this year because a judge ruled that prosecutors had withheld evidence.

So that's why there was a new trial this week. Though Davis was found guilty, he's getting credit for time served and won't have to do any extra time.

Comments

[Marvin]

They arrest you if you leave a corpse, they arrest you if you try to have sex with it. You can't win!

[roxorz]

This guy looks like a corpse.

[Stifled Freedom]

They arrest you for murder if you report it.

The key is to abandon the corpse in a manner that no one ever knows you were there.

[Stifled Freedom]

And sex with a corpse would technically be rape. A life sentence in most states. That's more time that you would get if you actually killed her.

[Keith G. in P.V.]

James, wasn't this prosecuted in the first place because Amber McGathey's daddy was socially/politically connected? I'm not certain but I seem to remember that her family really fought to have charges brought.

[KC Cicero]

Let us not forget: This was the case in which the assistant prosecutor was found to have intentionally withheld evidence crucial to the defense. If I recall, it was something that made it clear that he was not responsible for the girl's death -- a pretty important point.

Because the prosecutor has the power of the State behind him -- and the investigative resources of the police, medical examiner, crime lab, etc. -- it is only fair that he or she be required to disclose any and all evidence that might be favorable to a citizen charged with a crime. It is also REQUIRED by both law and ethics.

Criminal trials are not simply contests between lawyers with the same jobs. While both have an obligation to represent their clients to the best of their abilities within the rule of ethics, a prosecutor has a separate and equally important job of seeking justice -- not just victory. In some ways it is harder -- because it requires foregoing the advantage of hiding evidence that might be helpful to your opponent.

[FanDanGo]

Actually, what it proves is that the hundreds of pages of records "withheld" by the prosecutor from the defense were irrelevant. I thought the judge who earlier kicked Davis' guilty plea was an idiot and today's facts seem to bear that assessment out.

What this does -- which really hurts Davis and his attorneys -- is kill any civil action he might have been planning against the prosecutor's office or the police department. I mean, he does owe his victim's family half a million dollars for a wrongful death suit he lost . . .

[KC Cicero]

Actually, what it does is let him out of jail. There was never a viable civil case by this defendant.

This in no way lets the assistant prosecutor off the hook for his own misconduct. He does not get to decide the value of the evidence and whether he should disclose it. He is REQUIRED to disclose -- so that the trier of fact (judge or jury) can make the call.

By the way, the earlier judge is a very distinguished jurist whose reputation is actually fairly "law & order". It took some pretty serious stuff to get her that upset at the prosecutor. She clearly understood that the issue is not limited to the fate of this particular doper, but to the basic fairness of the system that we all rely upon to protect our personal freedom.