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Key witnesses Alicia Davidson-Creekmore and Christina Barden testified at Jason Davidson's murder trial Wednesday.
Davidson, 33, is on trial in Kosciusko Circuit Court on murder charges resulting from the shooting death of Sam Creekmore, 30, on May 2, 2002.
Alicia Davidson-Creekmore, ex-wife of Jason Davidson and widow of Creekmore, who told counsel she now prefers to be called simply Ms. Davidson, gave a teary-eyed testimony of the events of May 2.
In her testimony, she described Davidson in an obvious state of distress and not himself the night of the homicide. Davidson sounded monotone, robotic and emotionless during their many phone calls that evening, she said.
At one point, while sitting in her home with Creekmore and Barden, Alicia said, Davidson called her and asked her to meet him to talk. She said something about the tone of that conversation, that took place 20 minutes before the homicide, struck her as odd. After refusing to meet Davidson and hanging up the phone, Alicia said, she looked at Creekmore and Barden and said, "That's the weirdest conversation I've ever had with Jason."
Christina Barden's story was similar to Alicia's until that point, but their accounts of the rest of the night's events seem to differ.
Alicia said that after the phone call, they all went to bed. Barden went to her bedroom, and Alicia and Creekmore stayed in theirs, ready to sleep, Alicia testified.
Alicia said she received another phone call from Davidson that night.
Davidson still sounded robotic, yet more desperate, Alicia said. He was still asking her to come talk to him, saying he "needed to talk" to her, and she still refused, telling him Creekmore was upset and had left the bedroom to go downstairs.
The call was put on hold after she made that statement, Alicia said, and seconds later she heard shots fired in her home.
She ran downstairs, where she saw Creekmore lying on the floor, shot, and Davidson standing over him. She said Davidson told her, "I can't live like this. I told you I couldn't live like this."
Alicia said she responded by asking, "Where'd you shoot him?" Davidson replied simply, "I don't know."
At this point, Alicia said, Barden came downstairs, realized what had happened and said she had to call 911. According to Alicia, Davidson said, one time, "No, don't," but after Barden said, "He needs help," Davidson said simply, "OK."
Then, according to Alicia, Davidson stood stock still, gazing over the body with a "dazed" look on his face for about five minutes. Alicia said that it was like Davidson didn't even see Creekmore's body lying there. "It was like he wasn't looking at anything," Alicia said.
Finally, Alicia said, Davidson must have realized what had happened. He looked up at Alicia and Barden and asked, "What do I do?" Then he put the gun to his head and said, "I'm next, I can't go to prison."
The women then told him to leave, and he did.
Barden she said that after hearing the shots fired, she walked downstairs and saw Davidson with the gun. She thought it was a joke at first and teased him before seeing Creekmore's body. She then turned to run upstairs and call 911 from a telephone in her bedroom. She said Davidson repeatedly told her not to call 911, saying, "Don't do anything stupid, Chris," and after she called, saying to her, "I told you not to call 911."
The Jason Davidson described by Barden the night of the homicide was calm and emotionless, but did not seem disoriented, Barden said. Barden also said that while after the 9:56 p.m. telephone call between Alicia and Davidson Alicia did comment on how strange it was, Barden believes it was strange for a different reason than those cited by Alicia, though Barden did not specifically name any alternative reasons for Alicia to find the conversation odd.
Under cross-examination with Davidson attorney Mike Miner, Barden was asked on a scale of 1-10, how violent she thought Davidson is. Barden replied, "He's not. I've never seen Jason violent before."
The next witness to take the stand, Wesley Anglin, is a good friend and nephew of Davidson. Anglin described Davidson as depressed following the breakup of his marriage and the affair that he was now having with his ex-wife. Though his uncle and friend was obviously in an unhealthy state of mind, Anglin said he never advised counseling because "(I) just figured it would go away."
Anglin said he was aware of the prescription medicines that Davidson regularly took and said he witnessed the hallucinogenic side effects of the drug Ambien. Anglin also testified to the fact that while Davidson was non-violent, one time Davidson made what Anglin considered to be an offhand comment that he wished Creekmore were dead.
Anglin, who accompanied Davidson in December to purchase the gun, said the gun was a "spur-of-the-moment" buy and that he'd "be surprised if he ever even shot it (the gun) before." He did say Davidson had probably shot at a range before.
Two more witnesses, Kurt and Jennifer Barden, testified to the fact that while Davidson was, in Jennifer Barden's words, "the nicest guy I've ever met," they had both, early the night of the homicide, heard Davidson say in a jokingly frustrated way that he wished Creekmore were dead.
Neither Barden took Davidson seriously, as, they said, he was not a violent person, made the comment in a conversation that revolved around the love triangle between his ex-wife, Creekmore and himself, and was joking as he said it. The Bardens also both noted that Davidson was dressed in pajama-style pants the night of May 2 when they unexpectedly stopped by his house, just two hours before the homicide. Both stated that he seemed to have no intention of leaving his home that night.
