Jessie Davis

Case background and investigation

Jessie Marie Davis, 26, lived in Lake Township in Stark County, Ohio, near North Canton, with her two-year-old son, Blake. In June 2007 she was close to full term in her second pregnancy and expecting a daughter she intended to name Chloe. According to WOIO (Cleveland 19), she was killed at her home on June 14, 2007.

Her mother, Patty Porter, went to the home on June 15 and found Blake alone, the residence in disarray and no sign of her daughter, WOIO reported. Wikipedia's account adds that bleach had been spilled and furniture overturned. ABC News reported that the boy told officers, "Mommy's in the rug." Thousands of volunteers joined the search that followed, which drew national coverage.

The father of both children was Bobby Cutts Jr., then a Canton police officer. Nine days after Davis was last seen, on June 23, 2007, Cutts led investigators to her body, which had been wrapped in a comforter and left in a park about 25 miles away; Wikipedia identifies it as Hampton Hills Metro Park in Summit County. He was arrested the same day. A former high school classmate, Myisha Ferrell, was also arrested. According to Wikipedia, she pleaded guilty in November 2007 to obstruction of justice and complicity to gross abuse of a corpse and received a two-year prison sentence.

Cutts stood trial in Stark County Common Pleas Court in February 2008. He testified that Davis died accidentally when he struck her in the throat with his elbow during an argument, and that he panicked afterwards, ABC News reported. Prosecutors argued that he killed her to avoid paying child support, according to the Associated Press report carried by WPVI.

On February 15, 2008, the jury returned guilty verdicts. ABC News reported that Cutts was convicted of murder in the death of Davis and of aggravated murder in the death of the unborn child; Wikipedia lists further convictions for aggravated burglary, gross abuse of a corpse and child endangering. The jury declined to recommend the death penalty. On February 27, 2008, Judge Charles Brown Jr. imposed a life sentence under which Cutts must serve 57 years before he can be considered for parole.

Davis's mother publicly forgave Cutts and asked for leniency at sentencing. In 2017 the Associated Press reported that she had arranged prison visits between Cutts and his son and was advocating for his early release, which the report described as unlikely. No later change in his conviction or sentence was found.