A Death in the Stairwell

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I was at the New Haven Police Department when I heard our dispatch shaking a call from a frantic caller.

911 was the address sphere of emergency.

My husband just holds off the stairs and there's blood everywhere and I can't look all over.

I immediately got in my car, alerted Officer Shaney Bro.

We activated our lights and sirens and proceeded to the scene.

It was a little after four in the morning.

He's not responding.

Okay, I'm going to have help on the way to you.

They'll be there in just a few minutes, okay?

As we approach the house,

I see who I later found to be Allison Davis out in the front yard waving me down.

I'm sorry, I'm like in the camera.

No, you're inappropriate.

You're fine.

I asked where the victim was.

She directed me in through the kitchen.

By the front door, I could see a male laying face down with a large pool of blood around his head.

What's his name?

Yes.

Kevin Davis.

Did Allison attempt to talk to Kevin?

No, sir, not that I ever saw.

Kevin, can you hear us?

Kevin.

Just stay here, Kevin.

Ma'am, is there anybody else in the house just so we're aware?

Just my dog.

Okay, when did you find him?

Just now I woke up.

I be on fight listening.

And I was sleeping on the couch.

He was sleeping upstairs.

And all of a sudden, I woke up to a loud bang, and I was like, what is

this just doesn't look like a fault for me.

After I got the prognosis from the paramedics, hey, Medics confirmed C-.

I went up and let her know that he is extremely critical.

Right now we're treating this as a crime scene due to his condition, okay?

I inform her that at this point she cannot go back into the house.

Like why is it being treated as a crime scene?

Just due to his condition, okay?

He's critical right now.

All right.

The crime scene part really surprised her.

She doesn't have a normal reaction for me telling her her husband's critical, right?

I think she's still in a shot.

You think so?

I had Detective Krueger paged out.

I get the call.

It's about five in the morning.

So I get dressed, show up on scene.

Allison stands outside, relatively very calm.

You said that you guys were at East Haven last night.

She says they're out drinking at East Haven Tavern.

We got home.

We had some more beers.

I had an argument.

And she said that she had slept on the couch.

And then I woke up to a loud noise.

And when I came over, I saw him face down.

She said he had fallen down the stairs and there was blood everywhere.

I asked her if I could search the home.

She said that she wanted to cooperate, signed my consensus search paper and I go into the home, I verify.

There's a blanket and a pillow on the couch, the TV's on, someone was just sleeping there.

Checks out.

She said that they had a couple of beers when they got home.

There's beer cans lined up.

Everything seemed to be normal.

My alarm had just gone off for work, and I get a phone call from Allison.

My name is Casey Clem, and Allison Davis is my best friend.

There was an accident, and Kevin had fallen, and he was on his way to the hospital.

I said, say no more, I'm on my way.

She likes just fell apart in my arms and just started hysterically crying.

They had pronounced him brain dead.

When I was sitting next to Allison at the hospital, Detective Kruger called.

I said said that the scene is released.

You can return home, get clothes, whatever you need to do.

And he suggested that we have someone come clean this up and that there was a lot of blood.

In hindsight, I would have held the scene for longer.

After the autopsy,

that's when it started to change.

This is no accident.

She didn't do this.

She never would have done this.

It's a homicide.

Did Allison Davis murder her husband, Kevin?

Peter Van Sand reports a death in the stairwell

August 12th 2023

New Haven Indiana Shortly before morning broke in the home he rented with his wife Allison At the base of a steep stairway, Kevin Davis's blood seeped onto the floor.

Where's that blood coming from?

His nose.

The amount of blood was it was alarming.

It was everywhere.

Allison had already given Detective James Krueger permission to search the house.

If you do agree to that, I need you to stay in there saying that you understand it.

But she warned them about the bedroom, where their pit bull, Willow, would sometimes growl at strangers who approached.

She's up in the bedroom and she's a guard dog.

And I don't know if she'd do anything and I don't want anything.

Right now what I won't do is I won't go in that room.

Okay.

He's critical right now.

Kevin had been rushed to Parkview Regional Medical Center.

After speaking with first responders and breaking the tragic news to her loved ones, Allison also headed to Parkview.

So you go to the hospital?

Yes.

Steve Kraus watched his daughter try to will Kevin back to consciousness.

Their favorite phrase for one another was babe.

And Allison's up there, hey babe, you're going to be okay.

Hey babe, you know, I'm here with you.

Hey, babe, I love you.

She had like blood on her fingernail cuticles and on her phone.

I could tell she had been crying, but she kind of just looked like in shock.

Her best friend, Casey Clem.

They had her in like a little small waiting room with a chaplain, and I was trying to calm her down to ask questions, you know, like what was going on.

Back at the house, Detective Kruger lifted restrictions and cleared the bloody scene.

It was horrific, but at this point, he believed it was an accident.

Maybe he took a headplant down the stairs.

I don't know.

I wasn't there.

The detective said, I think we're done here.

Allison stayed at the hospital.

But back home, all that blood needed to be cleaned cleaned up.

You don't think about that, right?

Like who cleans it up?

I said, well, I will go do it.

You had permission to do this.

Correct.

Permission from the lead detective in this case.

Correct.

How upsetting was this process of cleaning?

Well, it's very upsetting.

Sometimes I'd become overwhelmed and need to

gather myself.

to finish what I'd come to do.

Including tending to Willow, who had been left upstairs in their bedroom with the door closed.

Allison was concerned that the dog hadn't been left out.

They had no children, so the dog was like a child.

Throughout that frantic morning, Allison and her family quietly prayed.

I'm praying, Kevin, just, you know, wake up, you know, wake up.

You look like you're sleeping, just wake up.

Kevin and Allison were part of a tight group of friends who were regulars at the East Haven Tavern, where Jodi Espy and Jessica Eckwright take care of the crowd.

Our customers become our family around here.

The news that Kevin was in critical condition hit hard.

Everybody was just talking like, oh my gosh, he was just here.

That's so sad.

Kevin and Allison had been at the tavern just hours earlier.

It was hard not to be a friend of Allison's because she just made everybody feel like you mattered.

Kevin, a skilled landscaper, had a big personality that matched his big heart.

Kevin Davis was

just a nice guy, always hardworking, ready to help anybody out at any time.

Close friends Todd Spessert and Jason Young scrambled to see Kevin.

We all met at the house.

Yeah.

We talked to Allison and her parents.

Plainly she had been crying, but she was holding back.

She was a mess.

She was devastated.

Yes.

The scene was overwhelming.

Yeah, he's brain dead.

There's nothing left in there.

Just a few hours earlier,

he was sitting right over here, right?

Correct.

Do you say anything to Kevin?

Oh, yeah.

I told him, it's like, I feel really bad about this and it shouldn't happen and wish you were still here.

And did you have a chance to say goodbye to your friend?

Yeah, I said goodbye there.

Yep.

Yeah, then they were talking about, you know, donating his organs and stuff.

I was like, wow.

He was an organ donor.

Yes, she was very proud of him for that, too.

His life support would be disconnected.

Soon, 40-year-old Kevin Davis was gone.

At 33, Allison was a widow.

They were just happy type of couple that would dance in the kitchen to music together, just the two of them.

Like, that's just who they were.

They were great together.

It shook their friend, Deontay Bristol.

I was just holding back tears because we were just hanging out.

Like, I was just hanging out with this guy.

It's devastating, not just because he's no longer here, but the circumstances surrounding it are traumatic.

It had to be an accident.

Nobody ever thought it was anything but a fall.

And that's what Detective Krueger concluded too.

I just didn't see any need in a small department to tie up all our resources and holding a house for an accident scene.

But the scene did raise questions.

Despite a huge amount of blood, first responders didn't see any lacerations on Kevin's head.

I was just told that he was bleeding out of his nose and mouth.

There was no obvious wound on the side of his head.

That same day, a doctor here at Parkview treating Kevin felt compelled to speak up.

One of the doctors of the ER staff had some concerns with his injuries.

The CT scans showed internal wounds, multiple skull fractures.

She also noted bruising to his face and scalp and concluded, Kevin's injuries were not consistent with a fall down a stairway.

That definitely raised some red flags in my mind.

She alerted the coroner's office, who ordered an autopsy.

When did this accident scene become a crime scene?

After the autopsy.

Once they told me that he had a crush and skull, definitely is not consistent with a fall from the stairs.

That's when I started digging a lot deeper into this case.

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Three days after Kevin's death, The autopsy was completed and the provocative findings turned over to police.

I get the autopsy report saying that his skull is crushed in.

Definitely is not consistent with a fall from the stairs.

But Kruger says it is consistent with a violent physical beating.

And you now are going, we may have a homicide on our hands, right?

Right.

You have a suspect in this case.

Yeah, Allison's definitely our suspect.

You have two people in a house,

one is murdered.

It seemed a routine step to launch the murder investigation of Allison Davis.

But the New Haven Police Department had a huge challenge created by its own decision.

By releasing the scene, that meant family members could

anti-bodies.

Yeah, the house is back to her.

But when people other than law enforcement enter a house, once it's been released, there's a problem, right?

There can be contamination of a crime scene.

Yeah.

The day after police received the autopsy, four days after Kevin's death, Detective Kruger got a search warrant.

That same day and the next, he returned to the house, a body cam rolling.

I have a couple more search warrants here, okay?

First one is I gotta take your phone from you.

Police had been looking for more evidence, including a possible murder weapon or traces of blood.

But by then, Allison's dad had already straightened up as best he could.

I basically cleaned up the area that I could visually see blood, and it was around where Kevin was on the floor.

It's right there at the bottom of the steps.

So, if I can gather the phone first,

Allison shared with Casey a growing unease she couldn't shake.

She was really upset that they took their phones.

Is that password protected?

Because that was a lot of their memories, pictures to look back on.

All right, thank you very much.

Allison would say she initially spoke willingly to investigators

doing all police asked of her.

She would talk to whomever wanted to speak with her, is that right?

She had nothing to hide.

Why would she?

There's nothing that suggests there was anything other than a fall down the stairs.

And for you, this was a tragic accident.

Of course, it was.

And as the spotlight turned to Allison Davis here at the East Haven Tavern, there were plenty who voiced their support.

There's no way.

There's no way what?

That she could have done that.

She could have killed him.

There's no way.

I could not imagine in any world where she would be wanted for murder.

The tavern crowd tells the story of that night.

Allison was working retail at Victoria's Secret.

When she finished, she headed over.

As usual, Kevin was waiting for her.

On that night, where was he sitting?

He was sitting over here at the bar.

And his mood that night was?

Was good.

He was happy.

He was friendly.

I was here with him.

You were here.

It was around 9 p.m.

when Allison walked in.

Typical night.

There was nothing out of the ordinary

in the slightest.

Kevin had a second, then a third beer, and some vodka shots.

Allison sipped on her usual, a sweet cocktail.

It didn't seem like she was drinking excessively at all.

The East Haven regulars carried on.

Kevin could get a little loud, his friends say, but they knew that was just Kevin being Kevin.

I mean, he was just a lot.

What does a lot mean?

He was very opinionated.

But she loved him through it.

Soon, it was after midnight.

Time to turn in.

They were calling it a night, winding down.

Allison left the tavern first, with Kevin following shortly after.

I think it was about one.

Kevin and his buddy Jason started texting.

Now those texts, do you still have them?

So this starts at 111 a.m.

Jason asked, you guys make it back?

Kevin responding, oh yeah, sorry.

LOL.

A moment later, Kevin confides, yeah, we are good, bro.

I'm just listening to music.

LOL.

Just being funny, you know, all that was basically going on till about 2.31.

But Casey says Allison told her it was late, and she had told Kevin to quiet down.

She was tired, and all she wanted was to get some sleep.

She said, Kevin, I have to get up early for work.

I'm going to go downstairs and sleep if you don't stop.

I need to sleep.

Like this one emoji here.

Kevin sent Jason a seemingly innocent text.

And he says, I'm putting my phone on silent, laughed my ass off, gotta go to bed, the wife.

The wife.

After the autopsy results came back and Detective Kruger got Allison and Kevin's phones, he studied that text and the ones before it.

He thought they didn't seem innocent at all.

He was obviously annoyed at her about something.

Remember, Allison had told first responders that they'd had a fight.

I woke up.

I be on a fight last night.

Who knows what was said?

It obviously aggravated her.

This is a wife that lost it and beat her husband to death.

There's nothing to suggest that Allison did anything.

This is just strictly an accident.

Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

From 48 Hours, follow and listen to 15 inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, wherever you get your podcasts.

With evidence showing that Kevin Davis's skull had multiple fractures,

everything was being re-examined to determine if those injuries were accidental or intentional.

911 was the atrocity of emergency.

Detective Kruger's team analyzed that 911 call

and concluded Allison was acting.

This is rehearsed because she wanted to listen to what the 9-1-1 dispatcher had to say, and then she went to her whole rehearsal.

Okay, and what happened to your husband?

Um, he fell down the stairs just now.

I was sleeping downstairs.

All of a sudden, I heard a loud noise.

She never asked him to hurry up.

Almost every 9-1 call you listen to, hey, hurry up.

I need you now.

You know, this call is about her.

It's not about Kevin.

Kevin, can you hear us?

And even as their body cams rolled, Hetrick and Shaneybrook questioned if Allison was genuinely concerned as Kevin lay dying.

Typically, based on your experience, how is a spouse reacting in a situation like this?

Usually just absolute panic.

And when EMTs lifted Kevin, brain dead, into an emergency vehicle, did she attempt to get into the ambulance?

Not once.

Not once.

Was she crying?

I don't ever recall witnessing her cry.

But they say they did hear her laughing.

We both noticed it.

When she was also talking to the paramedics, my body camera captured her kind of laughing with the paramedics.

Is there somewhere we could get closed for you?

Because you can't.

Yeah, that's the problem right now.

Like I said.

I mean, it is what it is at this point.

Okay, okay.

Also strange to police was what they observed at the bottom of the stairs.

This just doesn't look like a fall from nation at the time.

If he fell down the stairs, why wasn't he more either wedged up against the doorway, not laying perfectly flat in a horizontal position?

It's almost like he was laid down.

at that base of the stairs.

It didn't make sense.

Police would come to think they knew why.

It didn't add up to a tumble down the stairs.

What did it add up to you?

Blunt force trauma.

A beating police say several severe blows to the head

until Kevin's skull caved in.

Right now, we're treating this as a crime scene due to his condition, okay?

All right.

Police uncovered something else.

Allison told different stories as to where she and Kevin were sleeping.

Remember, first responders heard this story.

But that's not what investigators say Allison told Kevin's mother, Alta Beers.

Alta tells me that Allison told her that they were in bed together.

I said, okay, that's interesting.

She had told you she was on a couch.

Yeah, completely different.

Kruger says Allison didn't share with Kevin's family just how critically he was hurt.

She's minimizing this entire situation, especially to Kevin's family.

Why do you suppose Allison minimized his injuries?

Because she caused the injuries.

That's why she minimized them.

She's caught lying.

The detectives' theories, the 911 call,

faked.

Allison's behavior, unnatural.

Kevin's body, there's blood up here.

It had been moved.

It looks to me like he's been positioned in a way that does not consistent with falling down the stairs.

Prosecutor Tessa Helge teamed with Kruger and the doctors who had treated and examined Kevin.

So your experts are looking at a man that they believe basically was beaten to death.

That's exactly what they believe.

Beaten by someone.

Right.

And that's someone you believe was?

Allison Davis.

But the prosecutor since the investigation faced some serious challenges.

Where's the murder weapon?

That's a great question.

And what triggered this?

Between them?

I don't know.

I wish I knew.

But Helgi and Kruger became convinced they had learned something important about Allison and Kevin's marriage that could suggest a motive.

I spoke with Kevin's mother, Alta, and she informed me that they were having some marital issues.

You know, a domestic relationship that has gone bad.

It is on the rocks.

And remember these texts from the final hours of his life between Kevin and his friend Jason Young?

He said, I'm putting my phone on silent, laughing my ass off, got to go to bed.

The wife, gotta go, the wife.

Investigators suggested that message reflected tensions in the marriage.

Jason believes that's ridiculous.

Did he ever say to you, my marriage is in trouble?

No.

She would have told me if there was something going on.

Never was that hinted.

Allison's supporters say she was just being honest with investigators when she mentioned the argument.

But with detectives bearing down on her, Allison had stopped talking to them about her marriage or anything else.

She went completely silent after that and the cooperation stopped.

Over with.

Yep.

Yep.

On October 17th, 2023, after two months of investigation, police declared Kevin's death a homicide.

And two months after that, a warrant was issued for Allison's arrest

for the murder of her husband.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

So we get a recommendation for criminal defense team in Indianapolis.

Andrew Baldwin and Max Wiley.

I spent quite a bit of time with her.

And she's a wonderful person.

Three days before Christmas, Allison Davis walked into the Allen County jail with her parents.

She said, I'm Allison Davis, and I'm here to turn myself in.

Did they handcuff her right in front of you?

Yes.

Do you believe Allison Davis had anything to do with her husband's death?

No.

Wiley and Baldwin thought they knew exactly why cops hadn't found a murder weapon.

Because there was no murder.

What was the instrument that you believe caused Kevin's death?

The banister at the bottom of the stairs.

Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

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Indiana rarely allows bail on a murder charge.

Allison Davis was locked up in the Allen County jail.

She pleaded not guilty.

We know Allison, and we know she isn't capable of what they accused her of.

Does she have a temper?

No.

She never has a temper.

Does she have a criminal record?

No.

She does not have a criminal record.

Her father, Steve, hoped he'd given Allison tools to survive behind bars and face the anxious wait until her trial.

Our family is faith-based, and Allison

leaned on that faith.

It was so hard.

Casey Clem searched desperately for a way to help her friend.

It's like, there's nothing I can do for her except pretend to be strong and remind her that I'm here.

While loved ones missed Allison, she told them that she missed Kevin.

You know, she would say, I haven't been sleeping because I just keep seeing it in my head and I just miss him and I want him and you know she would talk about how all she wants more than anything in the world is to just hear him call her babe again and hold her.

Friends and family were denied any direct contact.

No visitation.

Were you able to see her on a video FaceTime kind of situation?

No, we were not.

Only her attorneys, Max Wiley and Andrew Baldwin, could see Allison.

Through plexiglass, they got to know their client and developed a sense of her relationship with Kevin.

Do you buy into this notion that it was a troubled marriage, headed toward a cliff?

Not at all.

No one's coming to the detectives, you know, right after this happened and saying there were problems in their marriage.

You need to investigate this.

Nobody.

But remember, four weeks after Kevin died, Detective Kruger spoke with Kevin's mother, Alta.

He says she told him Kevin and Allison were having marital problems.

It was looking like it was leaning towards a separation.

I think it's fair to say that he was concerned about the marriage.

and that he had shared those concerns with his family.

As Helgi prepared, she believed she had a compelling story to share with a jury, and it wasn't about love and marriage.

This case is going to boil down to a lot of science.

I'm Dr.

Bill Smock.

I'm a consultant to the Allen County District Attorney's Office in the death of Mr.

Davis.

When I brought Dr.

Smock in and I provided him all our materials, I did not tell him what anyone else thought.

The defense retained a medical expert of its own, Dr.

L.J.

Dragovich, a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist.

He studies brains, he studies brain injuries, he's passionate about it.

The two experts would come to radically different conclusions.

Mr.

Davis was beaten to death.

Kevin Davis died as a result of falling and striking his head on a bottom post of the stairway banister.

They worked to make sense of a tragedy that started with a phone call.

911 911 was the address of your emergency.

I have not heard the call.

Would you like to hear it?

Sure.

You ready?

I'm ready.

There's one everywhere, and I can't look all over.

I don't know what people ever done.

Listen to her.

I can't believe they did this to her.

It's unbelievable.

Such injustice.

At the East Haven Tavern,

the regulars were torn.

A lot of people think she's guilty.

A lot of people think she's innocent.

There's just not a bone in my body that thinks she could have done this.

I believe that she's not guilty.

What do you believe happened that night?

I have no idea.

In your mind, is Allison Davis a killer?

I don't know.

May 5th, 2025.

Allison has been locked up for 17 months.

The trial starts tomorrow.

Morning, May 6th.

Former Detective James Krueger, now Police Chief Kruger, after a promotion, heads to court.

I'm anxious.

What's at stake today is either Kevin Davis gets justice for what was done to him or we let a murderer walk free.

I just kept thinking what evidence they have to say that Allison murdered him and there just wasn't anything.

Kruger admits the investigation was flawed, but he isn't making any excuses.

I was responsible for gathering the evidence, making sure everything was complete.

If something got messed up or I missed something, that falls on my responsibility.

That's my baby.

He knows there are challenges, starting with a most basic issue.

He was a big guy.

You know, the jurors may have a hard time believing that she was even capable of causing this injury to him.

And if the chief was a betting man.

I give this one a 50-50.

I believe that there's a very good possibility that this jury will hang and there won't be a verdict.

At the Allen County Courthouse, Both sides are set to go.

The prosecution has no murder weapon.

The prosecution has nowhere to hide from this paltry evidence that it's about to present to you.

There's no doubt that Kevin was murdered.

And like Kruger, Helgi knows this case is a tough one.

So many people think Allison Davis simply could not be a killer.

It's not Allison.

That's not who she is.

She had no reason.

Kevin was her world.

Are you convinced that Allison Davis murdered her husband?

I'm 100% convinced, yes.

Fort Wayne's historic courthouse.

Allison Davis is on trial, charged with murder.

No cameras inside.

48 hours is allowed a sketch artist.

Investigators, doctors, loved ones testify.

But all eyes are on Allison.

And what do you see on her face?

I see...

love.

But it isn't love.

It's forensics that define this trial.

Doctors Smock and Dragovich and their radically opposing theories.

Mr.

Davis sustained blows to the head, not just on one side, but on the back and the left side as well.

At trial, Smock presents this CT scan highlighting Kevin's injuries, the multiple fractures to his head.

What that says is that Mr.

Davis sustained multiple blows to multiple areas of his head.

I told the jury that Mr.

Davis was the victim of a homicide.

He did not fall down those stairs.

He believes Allison wielded a weapon that was never found.

For example, a kettlebell, a weight.

It certainly could be the end of a baseball bat.

Kevin Davis was not killed as a result of impacts by baseball bat.

He suffered only one, one

impact to the head as his head slammed into that post of the banister.

That one impact, Dragovich says, led to multiple fractures.

He says the same impact then caused Kevin's brain to ricochet inside his skull.

The shattered bone fragments acted like shrapnel, tearing Kevin's brain.

They claim that Kevin was beaten.

They got it wrong.

I would say Dr.

Dragovich got it wrong.

Dr.

Smock says, just look at the police body cam video.

The banister post appears clean.

There's no evidence Kevin's head struck it.

There was no blood, no tissue, no hair.

on the top of that banister.

But remember, Dragovich argues the post is clean because Kevin's injuries were internal.

Kevin never had any open wound anywhere on his body.

Blood that was found by first responders was on the floor, beneath Kevin's body.

It came from his nose and mouth.

According to the defense, his skull hit this.

And if you want to follow me down here, Peter.

Chief Krueger tells us what he believes happened to Kevin.

I believe that he made some comments to Allison, who was laying down here on the couch and he's walking away from her.

He's walking away from her and Allison grabs an object.

He takes a blow to the back of the head.

Legally intoxicated and immobilized by more blows.

And somewhere in this area is where he loses it and falls.

Investigators believe Allison dragged 219-pound Kevin across a portion of this floor.

Miss Davis sees these stairs and says, well, this is my escape go.

I can make it look like this is an accident.

And he was pulled just enough to make it look like he fell down the stairs.

And Kruger says there's more evidence of Allison's guilt.

Kevin's cold body temperature.

Core body temperature was 91 degrees.

Dr.

Smock says he knows why.

Kevin Davis was lying there for at least two hours before 911 was called.

Kevin, can you hear us?

But in his testimony, Dr.

Dragovich counters Kevin's low temperature is due to something else.

The impact with the post destroyed a key part of Kevin's brain.

It's called the hypothalamus.

That part of the brain is the actual thermostat for the body.

The result?

Your body temperature is out of control.

It's a kaput.

There are so many inconsistencies with that theory.

So I came up the stairs.

Kruger took us upstairs to to that bedroom Willow the Pit Bull shared with Kevin and Allison.

She's up in the bedroom and she's a guard dog.

Allison had warned Kruger Willow might attack.

Right now, what I won't do is I won't go in that room.

Okay.

Did you ever get into this room?

I never did, not on that morning.

I 100% wish I would have gotten into this room on the morning of the 12th.

Because...

The murder weapon could have been in there.

Chief Kruger has been at the house several times.

This is the first time Allison's lawyers were able to get inside.

Wow.

Oh my goodness.

That's the staircase right there and there's the post.

So you hit that and you

end up, yeah, your feet over here.

Let's see how steep these stairs are.

They are really steep aren't they?

And narrow.

Yeah, and narrow.

It's powerful to be in this house.

And to picture what they believe were the final fatal steps of Kevin Davis.

It's an intoxicated guy that fell down the stairs and hit his head on that post right there.

The trial lasts four days.

Allison does not take the stand.

The jury is now out.

They just heard closing arguments for about two hours.

Which story will the jury believe?

The courthouse is dark except for the jury room.

Some 21 grueling months have passed

since the heartbreaking death of Kevin Davis.

Kevin, can you hear us?

If convicted of his murder, Allison Davis could spend the rest of her life in prison.

At 11 p.m., word comes: a verdict.

Allison's family and attorneys emerge.

Not guilty.

Oh my gosh, she's coming home.

Allison Davis, not guilty.

Just moments before, Steve had locked eyes with his daughter as her verdict came down.

She was crying with joy.

It was a wonderful moment.

That family over there,

that's why we do this work.

That's exactly why we do this work.

Kevin's mother, Alta, doesn't want her son to be forgotten.

He's my son.

I've always loved him and always will.

She accepts the verdict.

Okay, I'm dealing with it.

She's still my daughter-in-law, no matter what.

But where is Allison?

Back in jail, waiting for her release paperwork.

A cold but joyous crowd stands vigil.

Then, at 2:12 a.m., the jailhouse door cracks open.

Allison comes out, and everybody just erupts with joy.

Oh, my gosh.

It was a group hug of the ages.

Yes.

Tears saying, Allison, we missed you so much.

It's so good to have you in our arms again.

It's a lot of emotions, really.

There is no joy for those who believe the jury got it wrong.

I was like, oh,

unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

You were stunned by that?

I was.

Yeah.

48 Hours spoke with this juror who asked us not to show her face or use her name.

Well, the prosecution didn't have a strong case.

Like there was no weapon.

There was no,

this is where she did it and how she did it.

The prosecution's theory had a lot of holes.

And the jury believed the theories of Dr.

Dragovich.

He explained everything in very clear terms that we could understand.

And it just made sense.

It made sense to the injury.

For the family at East Haven Tavern,

a bittersweet celebration.

And for Kevin's family, what would you have to say to them?

I'll just say, I'm so sorry for your loss.

It's so devastating.

What do you hope for her?

I hope that she can find her place and to get back to that smiling, happy person that she was.

She didn't deserve a year and a half of her life taken away.

Sitting in jail.

So I was really happy for her.

Allison has left New Haven and is living with her parents and her dog Willow.

Sunday, you can count on an NFL on CBS Week 7 schedule featuring divisional rivalries and must-see QBs.

Beginning with the Raiders on the road against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, A late afternoon showdown with the Colts taking on the Chargers or rookie sensation Jackson Dart and the Giants meeting the Broncos.

It all begins at noon Eastern with the NFL today.

You can always count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.

The secrets out.

May I speak freely?

I prefer.

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