THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

NATCHEZ &8212; William Terry Davis admitted to beating his ex-wife &8220;real bad&8221; on the night she was found murdered, a witness told the jury Wednesday.

Ricky Lee, who said he was a close friend of Davis for about 20 years, testified at the murder trial that Davis came to Lee&8217;s Woodville job on the night of May 17, 1994 upset. Rena Davis was found dead earlier that day, but Lee said he hadn&8217;t yet heard the news.

&8220;He approached me late at night and said he had beaten Rena bad,&8221; Lee said. &8220;He said &8216;I messed up.&8217; Then he wheeled around crying and hysterical and left.&8221;

Lee&8217;s testimony was one of 14 for the state Wednesday, as proceedings slowed by attorney illness Tuesday rushed past on the trial&8217;s second day. The state and the defense rested their cases after eight hours of witnesses leaving only closing arguments, jury deliberation and a verdict in the trial.

Lee&8217;s testimony revealed 11 years of missing evidence that cold case investigators just uncovered last summer.

&8220;A few weeks (after Rena&8217;s death) he came by my house &8230; and gave me a wooden stake,&8221; Lee said of Davis. &8220;He told me to get rid of it because it might be mistaken as the murder weapon.&8221;

Lee kept the stake in a utility room at his house until investigators came looking for it last year. Lee said he never came forward with what he knew out of fear.

&8220;I was scared to death of him,&8221; Lee said. &8220;I didn&8217;t want to jeopardize my family.&8221;

Lee has been convicted of drug charges and admitted he made drug deals with Davis.

The prosecution entered the wooden stake, or tent stake, into evidence during the murder trial Wednesday. The approximately foot and a half long stake comes to a point at one end and rounds on the other end like a small baseball bat.

State Pathologist Steven Hayne testified that the stake could have been the murder weapon used to inflict wounds including skull fractures like those found on Rena Davis, but investigators and lab reports showed no blood on the stake.

&8220;Over a period of time (blood) can disappear,&8221; Hayne said. &8220;It would eventually break down and be lost.&8221;

The remainder of five hours of state witness testimonies were used to establish a history of violence between Davis and his wife and to create a timeline of the day and night Rena was killed.

Six witnesses, including doctors, an attorney and the man Rena was dating testified about specific incidents in which Rena was seriously injured by William Terry Davis.

The couple&8217;s daughter Bridgette Davis, now 17, told the jury she remembers her parents arguing on the day her mother died and said she&8217;s sometimes afraid of her father.

&8220;It&8217;s just the stuff I&8217;ve seen him do,&8221; she said. &8220;Not just to her.&8221;

Bridgette was 5 when her mother died. Two years ago, she said, she asked her father to go to church with her, but he refused.

&8220;No, there&8217;s something that God won&8217;t forgive me for. It&8217;s a burden on my heart,&8221; she said her father told her.

And Charles Sullivan Jr. of Brookhaven testified that he&8217;d seen William Terry Davis a few months before Rena&8217;s death, and Davis had threatened to kill his ex-wife.

&8220;He made comments, said his wife and him were having trouble,&8221; Sullivan said. &8220;She was going to move to Colorado, and he said &8216;She&8217;s not taking my kids away from me; I&8217;ll kill her.&8217;&8221;

But on the night Rena was killed, Davis was at his parents&8217; house in Woodville spending time with his daughters, the defense&8217;s only three witnesses said.

&8220;William was there the whole time,&8221; his mother Jeanette Davis said.

William Terry Davis&8217; niece Nicole Davis Howell, 16 at the time, said she was with Davis from that afternoon through the night and didn&8217;t go to sleep until around 3 a.m., saying he never left the house.

And his father, Boyce Davis, said the same.

The defense&8217;s case lasted a little over an hour including cross-examination time by the state.

The trial will continue today at 9 a.m. Judge Forrest &8220;Al&8221; Johnson said he expects a verdict sometime today.

Johnson denied a request from defense attorney Robert Clark for a directed verdict &8212; a ruling from the judge based on evidence presented or not presented. Clark made the motion after the state rested its case and before he started his. The jury was not present for the motion or the discussion.

Clark said no direct evidence had been presented to indicate his client committed the murder. District Attorney Ronnie Harper replied that the &8220;evidence speaks for itself.&8221;

&8220;There is no physical evidence linking this defendant to the crime scene,&8221; Johnson said. &8220;But with the motive, threats, past acts of violence and possible weapon, a jury could find without a reasonable doubt the defendant did in fact commit this crime.&8221;