Police detective: Prints on can matched those of murderer

Posted: Tuesday, March 23, 1999

JIM McBRIDE

Globe-News Courts Writer

Dallas police detectives testified Monday that Larry Donnell Davis' fingerprints were found at the scene of a 1993 murder.

An eight-woman, four-man jury found Davis guilty of capital murder Friday. Monday, prosecutors presented testimony about Davis' criminal record to persuade jurors that he should get lethal injection for the slaying of Michael Jerome Barrow of Amarillo.

Prosecutors presented testimony Monday that Davis faces another capital murder charge in the 1993 beating and stabbing death of Dallas resident Lexie Harris.

The crime went unsolved for about two years until a Dallas police detective matched Davis' fingerprints to evidence recovered from the crime scene, according to punishment-phase testimony presented Monday.

Detective Bruce Adams testified that he found fingerprints on a beer can found inside the Harris residence. Adams told jurors the victim's nude body was found beneath a blanket in the bathroom

Detective Sherry Degan, a fingerprint expert at the Dallas Police Department, testified that she matched two of Davis' prints with a beer can recovered from Harris' apartment. Degan also told jurors she had earned a record for matching more than 500 prints to suspects.

Defense attorney Warren Clark questioned Degan's feat and said she would have had to work 13-hour days to accomplish the number of fingerprint identifications to which she testified.

Prosecutor Pat Murphy objected to Clark's statement, and 181st District Judge Sam Kiser sustained the objection.

Davis' ex-wife, Mary Katherine Cornelius, who testified earlier in Davis' capital murder trial, began punishment-phase testimony Monday

Murphy questioned Cornelius about her relationship and a protective order she sought against Davis.

Under questioning by defense attorney Bonita Gunden, Cornelius said child-welfare authorities took away one of her children while she was incarcerated on a hot-check charge.

Cornelius said she had various theft-by-check convictions and had been jailed. On one occasion, Cornelius said she stole a car, but her husband was sent to prison for the crime.

Under cross-examination by Gunden, Cornelius said Davis kicked her and caused her to have a miscarriage, but the defense presented medical records that showed she suffered bleeding and other problems five days before the miscarriage.

Cornelius said she held out hopes of renewing her relationship with Davis, but the situation never worked out as she had hoped.

Davis was charged in the Aug. 28, 1995, death of Barrow, 26.

Davis and four other defendants were charged in the slaying. Kristie Lynn Castillo, Donald Junior Drew, Raydon Drew and a juvenile male were arrested and charged in connection with Barrow's death.

Barrow's parents found him dead in his home at 1409 Trigg St. He had been severely beaten and stabbed.

Barrow's house was robbed during the incident, and authorities later recovered some stolen items in local pawn shops and residences, police said.

Throughout the case, prosecutors repeatedly cited a 14-page statement Davis gave authorities, his alleged membership in a street gang and crime-scene evidence that linked Davis to the murder.

The defense argued that crime- scene evidence pointed to other co-defendants as the perpetrators of the murder and cited a confession from Kristie Castillo.

Castillo's confession, some hair- fiber evidence and statements from other co-defendants showed that Davis was not the primary attacker who killed Barrow.