By The Associated Press
CANTON, Ohio — A police officer accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend admitted to his high school classmate and co-defendant that he killed her and told authorities where they could find her body, prosecutors said.
Bobby L. Cutts Jr., 30, told Myisha Ferrell that he killed Jessie Davis and her fetus, prosecutors said Tuesday in documents filed in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Cutts has pleaded not guilty.
Ferrell told police of Cutts’ admission on Nov. 4, the day before she pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for lying to authorities, prosecutors said. She also admitted to complicity to gross abuse of a corpse and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Ferrell, 30, has agreed to testify against Cutts, who is facing three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse, and one count each of aggravated burglary and endangering children.
Davis, 26, was believed missing for nine days in June, and thousands gathered to search for her close to her home near North Canton, about 45 miles south of Cleveland. She was nearly full-term in her pregnancy.
A day after Davis was killed, her mother, Patricia Porter, found her 2 1/2-year-old grandson, Blake, alone in Davis’ home. Investigators said the boy provided them with the first clues, saying: ''Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug.’'
Davis’ body was found in a field in a park about 20 miles from her home.
''Cutts led police to a remote location where the badly decomposed body of Jessie Davis was recovered,’' prosecutors wrote. ''The body was found on top of the burgundy patterned comforter.’'
Prosecutors filed the documents in opposition to a motion by Cutts’ lawyers to dismiss death-penalty specifications in the case. Prosecutors have not provided sufficient facts to support a death sentence, Cutts’ defense team said.
Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. denied the motion Tuesday.
Brown has imposed a gag order on attorneys. Telephone calls to Cutts’ attorneys, Fernando Mack and Myron Watson, were not immediately returned.
Cutts’ attorneys said at a pretrial hearing Tuesday that they don’t believe Ferrell’s statement to prosecutors contains an admission by Cutts. His attorneys also argued that prosecutors haven’t given enough information to support an aggravated burglary charge.
In a written reply posted on the court’s Web site, prosecutors argued that Cutts may have initially entered the home with Davis’ consent. But once he ''began his violent assault upon Davis, he no longer had the privilege to remain in the home and became a criminal trespasser.’'
Cutts is scheduled to face trial in late January or early February.