Three weeks ago, former grocery store manager Mark Weiner, who was convicted of abduction with intent to defile in 2013, had his conviction vacated and was released from the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail after spending two-and-a-half years behind bars.
The attorney for another local man locked up for years for a crime many believe he didn’t commit is taking hope from Weiner’s release.
“The Weiner case shows that justice can be achieved when adequate and careful scrutiny to fairness and common sense overcomes ego and poor judgment,” says Steve Rosenfield, attorney for Robert Davis, who was convicted of the 2003 murders of a Crozet mother and son and has served 12 years of a 23-year sentence. His clemency petition is under review by Governor Terry McAuliffe’s administration, and Rosenfield says he’s been told the review will be complete in August.
“We’re in a sort of a sit and wait mode,” says Rosenfield.
Davis’ ordeal began on the morning of February 19, 2003, when firefighters raced to Cling Lane in Crozet to respond to a house fire. Inside the charred remains of the home, they made a gruesome discovery. They found Nola “Ann” Charles face down in her son’s bunk bed, bound with duct tape, her throat slit and a charred knife protruding from her back. Her 3-year-old son who died of smoke inhalation was found in his mother’s room.
Within two days of the murders, Rocky Fugett, 19 at the time, and his 15-year-old sister, Jessica, were arrested and charged with murder. They named two other Western Albemarle High School students as accomplices, but while police dropped charges against one, citing insufficient evidence, then-18-year-old Davis was left to take the heat. He was arrested, and over the course of a five-hour interrogation, denied involvement dozens of times before he finally confessed after being promised he could see his mother. The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University School of Law has called it a “textbook” false confession, and Davis’ accusers—serving 75- and 100-year sentences respectively— have since filed affidavits included with his petition admitting they lied about his involvement.
Rosenfield sought clemency in 2011, but on Bob McDonnell’s last day in office, the former governor denied Davis’ clemency petition and Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Tonya Vincent later revealed the McDonnell administration had never investigated the petition. As Governor Terry McAuliffe took office in 2013, Rosenfield sent a second clemency request.
Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran did not return phone calls requesting comment on the status of the petition by deadline.
For Davis’ mother, Sandy Seal, the painful wait continues.
“Me and Robert, we just have a bond like no mother and son has ever had,” says Seal, who has health conditions that require a nurse to stay with her. Her doctor wrote a summary for Davis’ clemency petition that said Seal’s health has rapidly declined with the added stress of Davis being in prison.
“If Robert was here to help me, I could possibly get better,” she says. “It would be the best day of my life.”
Seal taught her son not to fight and she worries about his safety in prison.
“Dear God, I don’t care what happens to me, but don’t let that happen to my boy,” she says. “He’s been through enough already for something that he hasn’t done.”