A California appeals court has shut the door on Roy Antonio Davis’ latest bid for freedom, upholding his murder conviction in the 2018 pickax killing of an 88-year-old Santa Monica resident and leaving his 32-year-to-life sentence untouched. The March 25 ruling effectively caps an eight-year legal saga over one of the beach city’s most unsettling violent crimes in recent memory.
In a 24-page opinion, a three-justice panel of the Second District Court of Appeal concluded that the evidence tying Davis to the killing was “overwhelming” and affirmed his second-degree murder convictions, according to Santa Monica Mirror. The justices noted that Davis’ attorney did not claim his client was innocent. Jurors ultimately returned second-degree murder verdicts after accepting the defense argument that Davis lacked the specific intent required for first-degree murder. The opinion was filed on March 25 and runs roughly two dozen pages.
Appeals Panel Says Mental Illness Evidence Fell Short
As Patch reported, Associate Justice Dorothy Kim wrote, “Although defendant provided evidence of his mental illness, he presented no alternate explanation for his goal-oriented behavior during the murders.” The panel pointed out that Davis armed himself before entering the Santa Monica apartment, locked the front door from the inside to avoid being discovered, then slipped out through a rear window.
How Two Killings Were Tied Together
Prosecutors say 88-year-old John Hautz was found dead inside his Santa Monica apartment on Jan. 1, 2018, the victim of multiple stab wounds, and that Davis was later linked to a second killing on Jan. 13, 2018, the stabbing death of 28-year-old Kenneth Schmitt, through forensic and investigative work, according to contemporaneous reporting by the Los Angeles Times. A March 2018 news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office described the first slaying as involving a pickax and the second as a knife attack, and noted that prosecutors would decide later whether to seek the death penalty.
Sentence Stands After Appeal
Roy Antonio Davis, now 34, is serving a 32-year-to-life term that remains in place following the appeals court decision, Santa Monica Mirror reported. The appellate ruling leaves the trial court’s findings intact and keeps both second-degree murder convictions in force. Any further legal maneuvering would require Davis’ defense team to seek discretionary review from the state’s highest court.
What Could Happen Next
Either side can ask the California Supreme Court to review the Second District’s decision, but the high court takes only a small fraction of cases and does so entirely at its discretion, according to guidance from the California Courts. If the Supreme Court declines to get involved, the appellate opinion will stand as the final word in the state court system.
For many Santa Monica residents, the ruling closes an eight-year chapter that began with a killing that rattled a quiet neighborhood in 2018. Unless the California Supreme Court steps in, this decision will likely mark the end of the legal road in the notorious case.
