A jury has convicted 66-year-old Kenneth Davis of murder in the 2024 shooting death of his 71-year-old roommate, Merle Southwick, inside their south Oklahoma City home. Southwick's brother discovered the body on August 2, 2024, when he arrived to pick him up for church.
The killing happened at a residence on 6610 S. Shields Boulevard, according to the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office. Following the jury's verdict, District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna said Southwick suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including a wound through his head. As reported by KOKH, Davis was identified as Southwick's roommate, and the jury convicted him following a four-day trial in Oklahoma City.
Detectives named Davis as a possible suspect after conducting multiple witness interviews, per the district attorney's account. He then fled Oklahoma, and U.S. Marshals located and captured him in Colorado. Davis was transported back to Oklahoma and booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on November 12, 2024.
A Recommendation That Amounts to Life Behind Bars
The jury recommended a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for Davis, according to KOKH's report on the verdict. But that recommendation carries far more weight than the phrase suggests. Under Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Section 13.1, murder is classified as an “85% crime,” meaning a convicted defendant must serve at least 85% of the court-imposed term before becoming eligible for parole consideration, per the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Oklahoma's parole calculation guidelines treat a standard life sentence as 45 years for eligibility purposes. That means an inmate serving life under the 85% rule must serve at least 38 years and 3 months before parole can even be considered, the same appellate guidance shows. For Davis, now 66, that math would put him past 104 years old before he could be considered for release.
Formal Sentencing Set for October
Behenna confirmed that Davis's formal sentencing in Oklahoma County District Court is scheduled for October 12, 2026. Law enforcement and prosecutors have not publicly released a specific motive behind the shooting.
The case was handled by Behenna's office. Southwick's death was recorded by the Oklahoma City Police Department as the city's 57th homicide of 2024, according to the Oklahoma City Free Press.
Davis's case follows other first-degree murder prosecutions moving through Oklahoma County courts, including that of 21-year-old Kevon Thomas, who was bound over for trial in August in connection with a November 2025 shooting, as Hoodline previously reported. Separately, readers should note that a Silver Alert issued in late August for a missing 74-year-old man also named Kenneth Davis, last seen in Duncan, Oklahoma, is unrelated to the convicted Oklahoma City man in this case.
