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Saturday, 07 February 2009 |
 Kelly Daniels/SDN Dane Davenport prays with his family and friends after being found not guilty of child fondling Friday in the Oktibbeha County Court. By KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
The fondling trial of a Mississippi Highway Patrol master sergeant ended in cheers from himself and tears from his alleged victim early Friday afternoon.
Dave Davenport, 46, of Vicksburg, was found not guilty Friday of fondling a youth on Sept. 23, 2007 in a Starkville hotel room.
It took the jury about half an hour to acquit Davenport, who immediately embraced his lead attorney John Zelbst of Oklahoma upon learning that he would not have to be escorted from the courtroom by bailiffs.
No juror looked at the alleged victim or his family when walking in the courtroom.
After court adjourned, the victim’s friends and family stood up around him, his mother and his brother while they grieved in their seats. They later left the courtroom, saying they were not able to give any statements at this time.
“I’m thankful,” Davenport said after a minister in the court gave a prayer of thanks with his friends and family. “I’m thankful to the jury, to my attorneys...”
Another of his attorneys, Michael Cupit, who practices in Louisiana led the congregation in singing the Doxology hymn.
Davenport, his defense team and his friends and family celebrated the acquittal at the Hotel Chester where they were staying.
“I feel relieved. I’m real grateful to this community and to this county,” Zelbst said, adding that people from all over the state had told him a jury from Oktibbeha County would convict any person charged of fondling.
“I said that’s not true,” he said.
“These are good people down here, they’re good, intelligent, smart people.”
After the trial, one juror said that the jury could not find Davenport guilty by way of following specific instructions given by the court from the defense and the prosecution.
He did not say whether he thought Davenport was guilty.
Local attorney, Austin Vollor, who also worked on Davenport’s team said he thought that the jury believed Davenport’s testimony.
Davenport faces a nine-count indictment in Warren County, four for sexual battery and five for fondling.
This trial’s victim will also be one of the alleged victims in the Warren County trial, which Vollor said would begin sometime in May.
Closing arguments
Before the jury was sent to deliberate, Zelbst and the Attorney General’s prosecution team of Brandon Ogburn and Jean Vaughan made closing arguments of their case.
Zelbst’s argument for Davenport’s innocence featured a visual outline of inconsistencies from each of the state’s witnesses.
“This is nothing more than ‘he said, she said’,” Zelbst’s said, referring to the lack of physical evidence in this trial.
“Do not convict this man.”
Zelbst also thanked the jury for being there, which Kitchens later said was against the law.
Ogbourn and Vaughan asked the jury not to be distracted by unimportant issues from the defense.
“Why are we here? Because it did happen,” Ogburn said.
“Please use common sense.”
Vaughan attempted to refresh the jury’s memory of the events with a narrative based on testimony from the victim and his mother.
“The stage was set,” she said, after finishing the story about how the victim’s mother found him being fondled by Davenport. “______ would never be the same.”
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 February 2009 )
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