Ex-police officer details pregnant woman’s death

Cutts said he tried to call 911, but the cell phone wouldn’t work.

CANTON (AP) — A former police officer accused of killing his pregnant lover testified Monday he swung his elbow at her when she wouldn’t let him leave her home.

During four hours of testimony, Bobby Cutts Jr. also said he drove around with the body and later mulched his yard and went to work, trying to convince himself nothing was wrong.

“I made a weeklong bad decision,” he said at one point.

Sobbing on the witness stand, Cutts said he was at Jessie Davis’ home to pick up his son before 6 a.m. and was telling her to hurry. The 26-year-old was nine months pregnant with Cutts’ child when she died June 14.

When she didn’t move quicker to get her son ready, he started to leave. She stopped him and he pointed his finger at her face. He said she bit it.

Cutts tried to leave again. He said Davis grabbed his arm and told him he couldn’t. He said he pulled his arm away and threw his elbow back.

He told jurors it landed in her throat area and she fell hard.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Cutts sobbed as he clutched at a handful of white tissues.

Cutts said nine days after she died he led authorities to her body.

“I wanted to prove I didn’t do what they were saying — aggravated murder,” Cutts said. “I didn’t try to kill anyone.”

Cutts, 30, has pleaded innocent to aggravated murder and other charges. He could receive the death penalty if convicted.

He testified that after Jessie fell he performed CPR, then tried to use bleach to revive her — a large bleach stain was found in her room.

“She wasn’t responding and I knew she was dead,” Cutts testified.

He said he recalled thinking, “No way this is happening, this is not happening.”

Defense attorney Fernando Mack asked why he didn’t call police.

“How do you explain that?” he said raising his voice. “I just wanted to go get my son. I didn’t want anybody to get hurt.”

Cutts, a former Canton police officer, testified that he didn’t want his 21⁄2-year-old son Blake to see his mother, so he put Davis’ body in the bed of her truck and went to a friend’s house. Blake was sleeping.

After he picked up friend Myisha Ferrell to watch Blake, he said he drove around in a panic, not knowing what to do.

“I can’t keep driving around with her body in the back of this truck,” he said.

While driving he saw a dirt road leading to a park and pulled in.

“I stopped,” said Cutts, then looked up to the ceiling.

“Did you leave Jessie at that location?” Mack said.

“Yeah,” Cutts said between sobs.

He then spent the rest of the day trying to convince himself nothing had happened.

“This isn’t real. It’s not happening,” Cutts said. “If I go along with my day, it’ll all go away.”

He picked up his daughter, bought her a snow cone maker, mulched his yard and went to work that evening. He even called Davis.

“I was hoping I would call her home and she would answer and this whole thing would be over,” he said.

After more than two hours of testimony, Cutts sat sniffling on the stand as assistant prosecutor Dennis Barr began his cross-examination.

“Mr. Cutts do you have a cold? Because I don’t see any tears,” Barr said.

Defense attorneys objected.

“Did you cry this much when you dumped Jessie’s body in the park?” Barr said.

“After I dumped her body, yes I did cry,” Cutts said.

Barr questioned why Cutts didn’t call 911. Cutts said he tried while he was at Davis’ home but couldn’t get her cell phone to work.

Cutts said he collapsed on her bed upset, explaining why the mattress in her room was askew on her box spring. He also said he knocked her nightstand and table over by accident.

Cutts testified that Blake slept the whole time.

“How does Blake know his mommy’s wrapped in a rug?” Barr asked, referring to a statement the boy made to his grandmother and an investigator.

Defense attorneys objected, and Barr withdrew the question.

Barr ended his cross-examination with two questions:

“You know what happens to babies who are inside the mother’s womb and receive no medical attention?”

“You think baby Chloe died when Jessie died?

Cutts said he didn’t know.

Cutts twice demonstrated how he swung his elbow at Davis. Barr openly scoffed at Cutts’ re-creation of the blow.

Jurors asked Cutts why he didn’t take Ferrell to watch Blake. He said he panicked because he moved the body.

Cutts was barely audible by the end of his testimony, and Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. repeatedly asked him to speak up.

Thousands searched for Davis in the area surrounding her home in the days she was missing.

Prosecutors have said Cutts was feeling the pressure of his crumbling marriage, financial debt and supporting several children.

Cutts’ attorneys told the jury during opening statements that there was no evidence linking Cutts to Davis’ killing. Prosecutors warned the jury that common sense, not DNA evidence, would determine the case.

Cutts’ friend, Ferrell, testified earlier that Cutts demonstrated to her that he choked Davis with his arm.