ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Thursday, February 14, 2008

CANDY BROOKS
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Allen S. Davis, serving 19 years in prison for firing shots at teen girls who had been "ghosting" at his Worthington home in 2006, has asked for a new day in court.

State public defender Kenneth Spiert has requested that Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch vacate the sentence agreed to in a plea bargain in her courtroom last July. In a motion filed last week, he also requested a new trial.

He maintains that Davis was denied due rights because his attorney did not properly advise him about the nature of the felonious-assault charges to which he pleaded guilty.

The request also claims that the attorney, Brian Rigg, should not have advised Davis to plead guilty "when he lacked the mental state necessary to be criminally responsible."

The sentencing resulted from a plea bargain. Davis pleaded guilty to two of five charges of felonious assault, a plea that reportedly was approved by the family of Rachel Barezinsky, who was shot in the head and seriously injured by the shots fired by Davis on Aug. 22, 2006.

She was one of five Thomas Worthington High School students who had been "ghosting" at Walnut Grove Cemetery that night. The cemetery is adjacent to the Davis home at 141 Sharon Springs Drive.

Three of the girls also exited the car and walked onto the Davis property that night. According to the motion, the girls perceived the house to be "haunted."

It is surrounded by brush and in the past had been the target of strangers who "harassed and taunted" the Davis family, according to the court document.

Davis fired shots at the car with a .22-caliber rifle. The girls then drove around the block, and Davis fired again at the car, this time hitting Barezinsky in the shoulder and head.

According to court documents, Davis' attorney did not inform him of the mental element necessary to prove a charge of felonious assault. That is, to be found guilty of felonious assault, the attempt to harm another must be done knowingly.

"As his statements to the authorities indicate, Mr. Davis did not fire the shots in a knowing or intentional effort to harm anyone in the car," the motion states.

Had Davis understood the charges, he would have had more confidence in his chances to win at trial and would have felt in a stronger bargaining position regarding plea bargains, the document states.

He would have insisted upon pleading guilty to only one felonious-assault count and would not have agreed to the plea bargain he eventually accepted, it continues.

The maximum sentence for each count of felonious assault is eight years, with three years added for using a firearm. Davis initially agreed to a 10-year sentence before prosecutors said they would not accept less than the 19 years that was eventually imposed.

Though Davis told the judge he did not want to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, the public defender's motion states that the decision belonged to the attorney, not the client.

The court's psychologist, in a letter to Judge Lynch, said of Davis, "At the time of the offense, this severe mental disease caused him not to know the wrongfulness of the acts charged."

According to the motion, "counsel's decision to forego the insanity defense in deference to Mr. Davis' wishes 'was inexcusable.'"