CANTON, Ohio – A police officer accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend admitted to his high school classmate and co-defendant that he killed her and told authorities where they could find her body, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Bobby L. Cutts Jr., 30, told Myisha Ferrell that he killed Jessie Davis and her unborn fetus, prosecutors said in documents filed in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Cutts has pleaded not guilty.
Ferrell told police of Cutts' admission on Nov. 4, the day before she pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for lying to authorities, prosecutors said. She also admitted to complicity to gross abuse of a corpse and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Ferrell, 30, has agreed to testify against Cutts, who is facing three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse, and one count each of aggravated burglary and endangering children.
Davis, 26, was believed missing for nine days in June, and thousands gathered to search for her close to her home near North Canton, about 45 miles south of Cleveland. She was nearly full-term in her pregnancy and planned to name her baby Chloe.
Her body was found in a field in a park on June 23 about 20 miles away from her home.
"Cutts led police to a remote location where the badly decomposed body of Jessie Davis was recovered," prosecutors wrote. "The body was found on top of the burgundy patterned comforter."
Prosecutors filed the documents in opposition to a motion by Cutts' lawyers to dismiss death-penalty specifications in the case. Prosecutors have not provided sufficient facts to support a death sentence, Cutts' defense team said.
Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. on Tuesday denied the motion to dismiss the case's capital elements.
Brown has imposed a gag order on attorneys. Telephone calls to Cutts' attorneys, Fernando Mack and Myron Watson, were not immediately returned.
But Cutts' attorneys said Tuesday that they don't believe Ferrell's statement to prosecutors contains an admission by Cutts. His attorneys also argued that prosecutors haven't given enough information to support an aggravated burglary charge.
In a written reply, prosecutors argued that Cutts may have initially entered the home with Davis' consent. But once he "began his violent assault upon Davis, he no longer had the privilege to remain in the home and became a criminal trespasser."
Davis was reported missing when her mother went to her home and found Blake in a dirty diaper, the bedroom furniture toppled and a pool of bleach on the floor.
Blake provided authorities with the first clues, saying: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug."
In August, Summit County medical examiner Lisa Kohler said she was unable to determine how Davis was killed.
Kohler ruled that the manner of death was a homicide but offered no other details, listing the cause as "unspecified homicidal violence."
Cutts is scheduled to face trial in late January or early February. The court has mailed 800 summonses to prospective jurors for the trial.
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