Trumbull prosecutor urges no clemency for ‘worst of the worst’ killer

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins says Roderick Davie, convicted of killing two people and nearly killing a third at Veterinary Companies of America in 1991, is one of the “worst of the worst” murderers his office has ever prosecuted.

Watkins wrote to the Ohio Parole Board to urge it to deny clemency to Davie, 38, who had been fired from his job at the VCA on Main Avenue Southwest about three months before walking into the warehouse and ordering VCA employees John Ira Coleman, Tracey Jefferys and William Everett to lie face down on the floor.

Everett, who survived, said Davie told them, “So you all work for VCA huh?” Everett then heard gunshots and felt shots in the back of his head, shoulder and left arm. He remained conscious though he played dead.

Jefferys attempted to escape, but Davie brought her back at gunpoint. After firing his last bullet into Coleman, Davie beat Jefferys to death with several instruments, including a metal chair on which police later found Davie’s fingerprints in Jefferys’ blood. The beating caused 36 separate lacerations on Jefferys.

In his letter to the parole board, Watkins said evidence presented at Davie’s trial “consisted of almost every conceivable type of proof a police department could gather for any trial. It included direct and circumstantial evidence of the crimes, a recorded confession, ballistics, fingerprints, hair and blood analysis and recovered fruits of the crimes.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.