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Cops: Witness in murder case gave false name
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A witness to the murder of a man from West Virginia who was shot to death last month in a South Avenue parking lot was arrested Wednesday.
Gordon Davis III, 24, was taken into custody at the police station on a charge of obstruction of justice and booked into the Mahoning County jail.
Davis is a witness in the murder of 41-year-old Dale Garver of Burnside, W.Va. He was killed in the parking lot of a South Avenue bar about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 28.
Detective Sgt. John Perdue, lead investigator on Garver’s death, said when Davis was interviewed two weeks ago, he gave detectives a false name. He said Davis was charged because that hindered the investigation.
“It took our investigation in a different route,” Perdue said.
Perdue said that when he and his partner, Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney, ran the Social Security number that Davis gave for the false name, nothing came up. After a couple of days, they talked to a deputy sheriff in West Virginia who told them Davis’ real identity.
“He threw us off for two weeks,” Perdue said. “When we went out looking for him, we ran into a dead end.”
Perdue said when investigators found out Davis was in town, they arrested him. He was taken into custody about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday at the police station.
Witnesses said Garver, who was in town from West Virginia to visit relatives, was in a truck with three other people counting a large amount of money and brandishing it. Two men walked up to the truck, and one of them pulled a gun and demanded the money Garver was counting. Garver refused, and he was shot.
The gunman and the other man ran away, while the people in the truck drove it to St. Elizabeth Health Center so Garver could be treated for his wounds. He died at the hospital a couple of hours after he was shot.
Perdue said Davis was one of the people in the truck, and he thinks Davis has been less than truthful with investigators as to what really happened.
“I know he knows more about this,” Perdue said.