ALBION - As they shared a batch of celebratory home-baked cookies outside Noble County Courthouse with the prosecution team that found them some semblance of closure midafternoon Friday, the exhaustion that had taken over the collective faces of Victoria Lynn Anderson’s family this week visibly gave way to joyous relief. Around 1:30 p.m. Friday, after 90 minutes of deliberation – which included time for lunch – a jury found Samuel Davis Jr., 36, guilty of each felony count he was charged with concerning the March 2, 2010, crash along Old 30 that killed Anderson in which Davis was found to have cocaine and marijuana in his system and drunk more than three-times the legal limit. Davis will be convicted of causing a death by driving with a blood-alcohol content of more than 0.15 percent, causing a death by driving with cocaine in his system, causing a death by driving with marijuana in his system – all Class B felonies – and Class C felony driving while intoxicated causing death. The convictions end a four-day trial in which Davis’ defense counsel attacked the blood sample collection that ultimately proved to be Davis’ demise, as the jury of eight women and four men overlooked gaffs that defense attorney Scott Lennox called “sloppy” and “questionable” and decided the cocaine and marijuana that appeared in Davis’ blood and the 0.25 blood alcohol content was enough to find him guilty on all counts. It was enough to elicit hearty sighs from the Anderson family who had sat in the gallery’s front row throughout from jury selection through the verdict. “This is not going to bring our baby girl back,” said Donna Anderson, Victoria Anderson’s mother, her eyes watery, “but it does offer a little closure for us. At least we know where (Davis) is going to be – behind bars – hopefully for a long time.” During Friday’s closing arguments, the prosecution detailed each specific charge Davis was facing and that the jury was to consider, saying each were proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Lennox, though, in his closing, raised question after question, working to show doubt in the case. Lennox brought up the failed protocol in the collection of blood tests, asking the jury how much weight can be put on a test that was “sloppy, incomplete and questionable.” Lennox called into question how much weight the jury would put on diagnosis by police and medics at the scene and during treatment that Davis smelled of alcohol when Davis admitted to consuming just two beers, and asked the jury not to put too much emphasis on Davis’ confused and groggy demeanor at the scene as evidence of impairment, citing the head injury he suffered. And Lennox questioned what Sgt. Rick Shepherd was doing between arriving back in Warsaw at 7:45 a.m. after leaving Parkview Hospital the morning of the crash and when the blood sample package was timestamped for mailing to the Indiana Department of Toxicology for testing two hours later. He further questioned why it took seven days for that package to be delivered to the center in Indianapolis. In her rebuttal to all claims, Kosciusko County Deputy Prosecutor Katie Hampton simply told the jury Lennox was working to “distract” them and “raise questions.” “There is nothing irregular about these tests,” Hampton told the jury. An hour and a half later, the jury announced it agreed with her.Davis will be sentenced Oct. 26 in Noble County Court. A Class B felony conviction holds a sentencing range of 6 to 20 years in prison, while a Class C felony conviction is punishable by 2 to 8 years in prison, per Indiana Code. All told, Davis is facing up to 68 years, though that doesn’t appear likely. Kirsch said he has already begun research into whether any of the charges might run concurrently, which he estimated some may if not all. He asked the prosecution and the defense to research the matter prior to sentencing. “Anything he gets won’t be enough,” said Donald Anderson, of Lakeland, Fla. “But this is a little bit of closure for all of us. It just won’t bring her back to us. It won’t.” The Kosciusko County Probation Department will handle any post-sentence matters, it was decided.
