A Death in the Stairwell

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Speaker 7 I was at the New Haven Police Department when I heard our dispatch shaking a call from a frantic caller.

Speaker 8 911 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.

Speaker 7 I immediately got in my car, alerted Officer Shaney Bro.

Speaker 7 We activated our lights and sirens and proceeded to the scene.

Speaker 9 It was a little after four in the morning.

Speaker 10 He's not responding.

Speaker 8 Okay, I'm going to have help on the way to you. They'll be there in just a few minutes, okay?

Speaker 7 As we approach the house,

Speaker 7 I see who I later found to be Allison Davis out in the front yard waving me down.

Speaker 13 I'm sorry, I'm like in the camera. No, you're inappropriate.

Speaker 13 You're fine.

Speaker 7 I asked where the victim was.

Speaker 7 She directed me in through the kitchen.

Speaker 7 By the front door, I could see a male laying face down with a large pool of blood around his head.

Speaker 13 What's his name?

Speaker 13 Yes. Kevin Davis.

Speaker 14 Did Allison attempt to talk to Kevin?

Speaker 7 No, sir, not that I ever saw.

Speaker 16 Kevin, can you hear us?

Speaker 16 Kevin.

Speaker 12 Just stay here, Kevin.

Speaker 1 Ma'am, is there anybody else in the house just so we're aware? Just my dog.

Speaker 12 Okay, when did you find him?

Speaker 17 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

Speaker 13 this just doesn't look like a fault for me.

Speaker 7 After I got the prognosis from the paramedics, hey, Medics confirmed C-.

Speaker 7 I went up and let her know that he is extremely critical.

Speaker 12 Right now we're treating this as a crime scene due to his condition, okay?

Speaker 7 I inform her that at this point she cannot go back into the house.

Speaker 18 Like why is it being treated as a crime scene?

Speaker 12 Just due to his condition, okay?

Speaker 12 He's critical right now.

Speaker 19 All right.

Speaker 7 The crime scene part really surprised her.

Speaker 12 She doesn't have a normal reaction for me telling her her husband's critical, right?

Speaker 19 I think she's still in a shot.

Speaker 20 You think so?

Speaker 21 I had Detective Krueger paged out.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 19 You said that you guys were at East Haven last night.

Speaker 22 She says they're out drinking at East Haven Tavern.

Speaker 23 We got home.

Speaker 17 We had some more beers.

Speaker 17 I had an argument.

Speaker 22 And she said that she had slept on the couch.

Speaker 17 And then I woke up to a loud noise. And when I came over, I saw him face down.

Speaker 22 She said he had fallen down the stairs and there was blood everywhere. I asked her if I could search the home.

Speaker 22 She said that she wanted to cooperate, signed my consensus search paper and I go into the home, I verify.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 22 Everything seemed to be normal.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 25 She likes just fell apart in my arms and just started hysterically crying. They had pronounced him brain dead.

Speaker 25 When I was sitting next to Allison at the hospital, Detective Kruger called.

Speaker 22 I said said that the scene is released. You can return home, get clothes, whatever you need to do.

Speaker 25 And he suggested that we have someone come clean this up and that there was a lot of blood.

Speaker 22 In hindsight, I would have held the scene for longer. After the autopsy,

Speaker 22 that's when it started to change.

Speaker 22 This is no accident.

Speaker 25 She didn't do this. She never would have done this.

Speaker 22 It's a homicide.

Speaker 27 Did Allison Davis murder her husband, Kevin?

Speaker 29 Peter Van Sand reports a death in the stairwell

Speaker 3 August 12th 2023

Speaker 33 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.

Speaker 20 Where's that blood coming from?

Speaker 2 His nose.

Speaker 22 The amount of blood was it was alarming.

Speaker 22 It was everywhere.

Speaker 36 Allison had already given Detective James Krueger permission to search the house.

Speaker 19 If you do agree to that, I need you to stay in there saying that you understand it.

Speaker 3 But she warned them about the bedroom, where their pit bull, Willow, would sometimes growl at strangers who approached.

Speaker 17 She's up in the bedroom and she's a guard dog.

Speaker 17 And I don't know if she'd do anything and I don't want anything.

Speaker 38 Right now what I won't do is I won't go in that room. Okay.

Speaker 12 He's critical right now.

Speaker 39 Kevin had been rushed to Parkview Regional Medical Center.

Speaker 37 After speaking with first responders and breaking the tragic news to her loved ones, Allison also headed to Parkview.

Speaker 34 So you go to the hospital?

Speaker 41 Yes.

Speaker 23 Steve Kraus watched his daughter try to will Kevin back to consciousness.

Speaker 28 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.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 36 Her best friend, Casey Clem.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 36 Back at the house, Detective Kruger lifted restrictions and cleared the bloody scene.

Speaker 35 It was horrific, but at this point, he believed it was an accident.

Speaker 22 Maybe he took a headplant down the stairs. I don't know.
I wasn't there.

Speaker 25 The detective said, I think we're done here.

Speaker 36 Allison stayed at the hospital.

Speaker 42 But back home, all that blood needed to be cleaned cleaned up.

Speaker 25 You don't think about that, right? Like who cleans it up?

Speaker 28 I said, well, I will go do it.

Speaker 4 You had permission to do this.

Speaker 46 Correct.

Speaker 24 Permission from the lead detective in this case.

Speaker 47 Correct.

Speaker 46 How upsetting was this process of cleaning?

Speaker 28 Well, it's very upsetting. Sometimes I'd become overwhelmed and need to

Speaker 28 gather myself.

Speaker 15 to finish what I'd come to do.

Speaker 31 Including tending to Willow, who had been left upstairs in their bedroom with the door closed.

Speaker 34 Allison was concerned that the dog hadn't been left out. They had no children, so the dog was like a child.

Speaker 51 Throughout that frantic morning, Allison and her family quietly prayed.

Speaker 28 I'm praying, Kevin, just, you know, wake up, you know, wake up. You look like you're sleeping, just wake up.

Speaker 44 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.

Speaker 54 Our customers become our family around here.

Speaker 42 The news that Kevin was in critical condition hit hard.

Speaker 43 Everybody was just talking like, oh my gosh, he was just here. That's so sad.

Speaker 51 Kevin and Allison had been at the tavern just hours earlier.

Speaker 54 It was hard not to be a friend of Allison's because she just made everybody feel like you mattered.

Speaker 41 Kevin, a skilled landscaper, had a big personality that matched his big heart. Kevin Davis was

Speaker 22 just a nice guy, always hardworking, ready to help anybody out at any time.

Speaker 51 Close friends Todd Spessert and Jason Young scrambled to see Kevin.

Speaker 50 We all met at the house.

Speaker 44 Yeah.

Speaker 50 We talked to Allison and her parents. Plainly she had been crying, but she was holding back.

Speaker 22 She was a mess.

Speaker 21 She was devastated. Yes.

Speaker 42 The scene was overwhelming.

Speaker 22 Yeah, he's brain dead. There's nothing left in there.

Speaker 29 Just a few hours earlier,

Speaker 28 he was sitting right over here, right? Correct.

Speaker 14 Do you say anything to Kevin?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 50 I told him, it's like, I feel really bad about this and it shouldn't happen and wish you were still here.

Speaker 14 And did you have a chance to say goodbye to your friend?

Speaker 50 Yeah, I said goodbye there. Yep.

Speaker 22 Yeah, then they were talking about, you know, donating his organs and stuff.

Speaker 22 I was like, wow.

Speaker 4 He was an organ donor.

Speaker 25 Yes, she was very proud of him for that, too.

Speaker 40 His life support would be disconnected.

Speaker 35 Soon, 40-year-old Kevin Davis was gone.

Speaker 31 At 33, Allison was a widow.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 8 They were great together.

Speaker 33 It shook their friend, Deontay Bristol.

Speaker 46 I was just holding back tears because we were just hanging out.

Speaker 22 Like, I was just hanging out with this guy.

Speaker 54 It's devastating, not just because he's no longer here, but the circumstances surrounding it are traumatic.

Speaker 46 It had to be an accident.

Speaker 55 Nobody ever thought it was anything but a fall.

Speaker 35 And that's what Detective Krueger concluded too.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 31 But the scene did raise questions.

Speaker 14 Despite a huge amount of blood, first responders didn't see any lacerations on Kevin's head.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 56 That same day, a doctor here at Parkview treating Kevin felt compelled to speak up.

Speaker 22 One of the doctors of the ER staff had some concerns with his injuries.

Speaker 3 The CT scans showed internal wounds, multiple skull fractures.

Speaker 14 She also noted bruising to his face and scalp and concluded, Kevin's injuries were not consistent with a fall down a stairway.

Speaker 22 That definitely raised some red flags in my mind.

Speaker 36 She alerted the coroner's office, who ordered an autopsy.

Speaker 49 When did this accident scene become a crime scene?

Speaker 22 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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Speaker 36 Three days after Kevin's death, The autopsy was completed and the provocative findings turned over to police.

Speaker 22 I get the autopsy report saying that his skull is crushed in. Definitely is not consistent with a fall from the stairs.

Speaker 58 But Kruger says it is consistent with a violent physical beating.

Speaker 49 And you now are going, we may have a homicide on our hands, right?

Speaker 29 Right. You have a suspect in this case.

Speaker 22 Yeah, Allison's definitely our suspect.

Speaker 22 You have two people in a house,

Speaker 22 one is murdered.

Speaker 56 It seemed a routine step to launch the murder investigation of Allison Davis.

Speaker 33 But the New Haven Police Department had a huge challenge created by its own decision.

Speaker 4 By releasing the scene, that meant family members could

Speaker 34 anti-bodies.

Speaker 22 Yeah, the house is back to her.

Speaker 4 But when people other than law enforcement enter a house, once it's been released, there's a problem, right?

Speaker 14 There can be contamination of a crime scene.

Speaker 49 Yeah.

Speaker 31 The day after police received the autopsy, four days after Kevin's death, Detective Kruger got a search warrant.

Speaker 24 That same day and the next, he returned to the house, a body cam rolling.

Speaker 19 I have a couple more search warrants here, okay?

Speaker 19 First one is I gotta take your phone from you.

Speaker 24 Police had been looking for more evidence, including a possible murder weapon or traces of blood.

Speaker 41 But by then, Allison's dad had already straightened up as best he could.

Speaker 28 I basically cleaned up the area that I could visually see blood, and it was around where Kevin was on the floor.

Speaker 28 It's right there at the bottom of the steps.

Speaker 19 So, if I can gather the phone first,

Speaker 42 Allison shared with Casey a growing unease she couldn't shake.

Speaker 25 She was really upset that they took their phones.

Speaker 12 Is that password protected?

Speaker 25 Because that was a lot of their memories, pictures to look back on.

Speaker 35 All right, thank you very much. Allison would say she initially spoke willingly to investigators

Speaker 52 doing all police asked of her.

Speaker 4 She would talk to whomever wanted to speak with her, is that right?

Speaker 25 She had nothing to hide.

Speaker 65 Why would she?

Speaker 28 There's nothing that suggests there was anything other than a fall down the stairs.

Speaker 21 And for you, this was a tragic accident.

Speaker 28 Of course, it was.

Speaker 66 And as the spotlight turned to Allison Davis here at the East Haven Tavern, there were plenty who voiced their support.

Speaker 55 There's no way.

Speaker 28 There's no way what?

Speaker 55 That she could have done that. She could have killed him.

Speaker 43 There's no way.

Speaker 54 I could not imagine in any world where she would be wanted for murder.

Speaker 36 The tavern crowd tells the story of that night.

Speaker 31 Allison was working retail at Victoria's Secret.

Speaker 14 When she finished, she headed over.

Speaker 58 As usual, Kevin was waiting for her.

Speaker 47 On that night, where was he sitting?

Speaker 43 He was sitting over here at the bar.

Speaker 4 And his mood that night was?

Speaker 55 Was good.

Speaker 43 He was happy.

Speaker 55 He was friendly.

Speaker 50 I was here with him.

Speaker 29 You were here.

Speaker 51 It was around 9 p.m. when Allison walked in.

Speaker 55 Typical night.

Speaker 54 There was nothing out of the ordinary

Speaker 54 in the slightest.

Speaker 32 Kevin had a second, then a third beer, and some vodka shots.

Speaker 31 Allison sipped on her usual, a sweet cocktail.

Speaker 54 It didn't seem like she was drinking excessively at all.

Speaker 35 The East Haven regulars carried on.

Speaker 31 Kevin could get a little loud, his friends say, but they knew that was just Kevin being Kevin.

Speaker 55 I mean, he was just a lot.

Speaker 49 What does a lot mean?

Speaker 8 He was very opinionated.

Speaker 54 But she loved him through it.

Speaker 32 Soon, it was after midnight. Time to turn in.

Speaker 54 They were calling it a night, winding down.

Speaker 44 Allison left the tavern first, with Kevin following shortly after.

Speaker 54 I think it was about one.

Speaker 31 Kevin and his buddy Jason started texting.

Speaker 24 Now those texts, do you still have them?

Speaker 4 So this starts at 111 a.m.

Speaker 32 Jason asked, you guys make it back?

Speaker 45 Kevin responding, oh yeah, sorry.

Speaker 2 LOL.

Speaker 3 A moment later, Kevin confides, yeah, we are good, bro.

Speaker 57 I'm just listening to music.

Speaker 15 LOL.

Speaker 50 Just being funny, you know, all that was basically going on till about 2.31.

Speaker 3 But Casey says Allison told her it was late, and she had told Kevin to quiet down.

Speaker 31 She was tired, and all she wanted was to get some sleep.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 32 Like this one emoji here.

Speaker 35 Kevin sent Jason a seemingly innocent text.

Speaker 50 And he says, I'm putting my phone on silent, laughed my ass off, gotta go to bed, the wife.

Speaker 45 The wife.

Speaker 51 After the autopsy results came back and Detective Kruger got Allison and Kevin's phones, he studied that text and the ones before it.

Speaker 30 He thought they didn't seem innocent at all.

Speaker 22 He was obviously annoyed at her about something.

Speaker 63 Remember, Allison had told first responders that they'd had a fight.

Speaker 17 I woke up.

Speaker 13 I be on a fight last night.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 35 This is just strictly an accident.

Speaker 29 Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

Speaker 67 From 48 Hours, follow and listen to 15 inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 42 With evidence showing that Kevin Davis's skull had multiple fractures,

Speaker 14 everything was being re-examined to determine if those injuries were accidental or intentional.

Speaker 8 911 was the atrocity of emergency.

Speaker 51 Detective Kruger's team analyzed that 911 call

Speaker 33 and concluded Allison was acting.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 8 Okay, and what happened to your husband?

Speaker 10 Um, he fell down the stairs just now. I was sleeping downstairs.

Speaker 10 All of a sudden, I heard a loud noise.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 16 Kevin, can you hear us?

Speaker 14 And even as their body cams rolled, Hetrick and Shaneybrook questioned if Allison was genuinely concerned as Kevin lay dying.

Speaker 14 Typically, based on your experience, how is a spouse reacting in a situation like this?

Speaker 7 Usually just absolute panic.

Speaker 58 And when EMTs lifted Kevin, brain dead, into an emergency vehicle, did she attempt to get into the ambulance?

Speaker 7 Not once.

Speaker 51 Not once.

Speaker 33 Was she crying?

Speaker 7 I don't ever recall witnessing her cry.

Speaker 30 But they say they did hear her laughing.

Speaker 9 We both noticed it.

Speaker 7 When she was also talking to the paramedics, my body camera captured her kind of laughing with the paramedics.

Speaker 12 Is there somewhere we could get closed for you?

Speaker 17 Because you can't.

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's the problem right now. Like I said.

Speaker 18 I mean, it is what it is at this point.

Speaker 12 Okay, okay.

Speaker 64 Also strange to police was what they observed at the bottom of the stairs.

Speaker 13 This just doesn't look like a fall from nation at the time.

Speaker 9 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?

Speaker 22 It's almost like he was laid down. at that base of the stairs.
It didn't make sense.

Speaker 24 Police would come to think they knew why.

Speaker 7 It didn't add up to a tumble down the stairs.

Speaker 21 What did it add up to you?

Speaker 7 Blunt force trauma.

Speaker 40 A beating police say several severe blows to the head

Speaker 33 until Kevin's skull caved in.

Speaker 12 Right now, we're treating this as a crime scene due to his condition, okay?

Speaker 12 All right.

Speaker 4 Police uncovered something else.

Speaker 34 Allison told different stories as to where she and Kevin were sleeping.

Speaker 41 Remember, first responders heard this story.

Speaker 51 But that's not what investigators say Allison told Kevin's mother, Alta Beers.

Speaker 22 Alta tells me that Allison told her that they were in bed together. I said, okay, that's interesting.

Speaker 14 She had told you she was on a couch.

Speaker 22 Yeah, completely different.

Speaker 37 Kruger says Allison didn't share with Kevin's family just how critically he was hurt.

Speaker 22 She's minimizing this entire situation, especially to Kevin's family.

Speaker 14 Why do you suppose Allison minimized his injuries?

Speaker 22 Because she caused the injuries. That's why she minimized them.
She's caught lying.

Speaker 21 The detectives' theories, the 911 call,

Speaker 66 faked. Allison's behavior, unnatural.

Speaker 31 Kevin's body, there's blood up here.

Speaker 51 It had been moved.

Speaker 65 It looks to me like he's been positioned in a way that does not consistent with falling down the stairs.

Speaker 32 Prosecutor Tessa Helge teamed with Kruger and the doctors who had treated and examined Kevin.

Speaker 4 So your experts are looking at a man that they believe basically was beaten to death.

Speaker 65 That's exactly what they believe.

Speaker 49 Beaten by someone.

Speaker 4 Right. And that's someone you believe was?

Speaker 65 Allison Davis.

Speaker 14 But the prosecutor since the investigation faced some serious challenges.

Speaker 29 Where's the murder weapon?

Speaker 65 That's a great question.

Speaker 46 And what triggered this?

Speaker 65 Between them?

Speaker 55 I don't know. I wish I knew.

Speaker 51 But Helgi and Kruger became convinced they had learned something important about Allison and Kevin's marriage that could suggest a motive.

Speaker 22 I spoke with Kevin's mother, Alta, and she informed me that they were having some marital issues.

Speaker 65 You know, a domestic relationship that has gone bad. It is on the rocks.

Speaker 51 And remember these texts from the final hours of his life between Kevin and his friend Jason Young?

Speaker 50 He said, I'm putting my phone on silent, laughing my ass off, got to go to bed.

Speaker 34 The wife, gotta go, the wife.

Speaker 37 Investigators suggested that message reflected tensions in the marriage.

Speaker 35 Jason believes that's ridiculous.

Speaker 47 Did he ever say to you, my marriage is in trouble? No.

Speaker 25 She would have told me if there was something going on.

Speaker 25 Never was that hinted.

Speaker 37 Allison's supporters say she was just being honest with investigators when she mentioned the argument.

Speaker 51 But with detectives bearing down on her, Allison had stopped talking to them about her marriage or anything else.

Speaker 22 She went completely silent after that and the cooperation stopped.

Speaker 44 Over with. Yep.

Speaker 32 Yep.

Speaker 51 On October 17th, 2023, after two months of investigation, police declared Kevin's death a homicide.

Speaker 32 And two months after that, a warrant was issued for Allison's arrest

Speaker 51 for the murder of her husband.

Speaker 28 I mean, this is unbelievable. So we get a recommendation for criminal defense team in Indianapolis.
Andrew Baldwin and Max Wiley.

Speaker 26 I spent quite a bit of time with her. And she's a wonderful person.

Speaker 32 Three days before Christmas, Allison Davis walked into the Allen County jail with her parents.

Speaker 28 She said, I'm Allison Davis, and I'm here to turn myself in.

Speaker 4 Did they handcuff her right in front of you?

Speaker 48 Yes.

Speaker 27 Do you believe Allison Davis had anything to do with her husband's death?

Speaker 20 No.

Speaker 51 Wiley and Baldwin thought they knew exactly why cops hadn't found a murder weapon.

Speaker 59 Because there was no murder.

Speaker 27 What was the instrument that you believe caused Kevin's death?

Speaker 69 The banister at the bottom of the stairs.

Speaker 29 Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

Speaker 67 From 48 Hours, follow and listen to 15 Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1 Indiana rarely allows bail on a murder charge.

Speaker 56 Allison Davis was locked up in the Allen County jail.

Speaker 30 She pleaded not guilty.

Speaker 28 We know Allison, and we know she isn't capable of what they accused her of.

Speaker 14 Does she have a temper?

Speaker 8 No.

Speaker 27 She never has a temper. Does she have a criminal record?

Speaker 28 No. She does not have a criminal record.

Speaker 64 Her father, Steve, hoped he'd given Allison tools to survive behind bars and face the anxious wait until her trial.

Speaker 28 Our family is faith-based, and Allison

Speaker 28 leaned on that faith.

Speaker 25 It was so hard.

Speaker 53 Casey Clem searched desperately for a way to help her friend.

Speaker 25 It's like, there's nothing I can do for her except pretend to be strong and remind her that I'm here.

Speaker 37 While loved ones missed Allison, she told them that she missed Kevin.

Speaker 25 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.

Speaker 51 Friends and family were denied any direct contact.

Speaker 28 No visitation.

Speaker 4 Were you able to see her on a video FaceTime kind of situation?

Speaker 28 No, we were not.

Speaker 23 Only her attorneys, Max Wiley and Andrew Baldwin, could see Allison.

Speaker 37 Through plexiglass, they got to know their client and developed a sense of her relationship with Kevin.

Speaker 14 Do you buy into this notion that it was a troubled marriage, headed toward a cliff?

Speaker 69 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.

Speaker 14 But remember, four weeks after Kevin died, Detective Kruger spoke with Kevin's mother, Alta.

Speaker 37 He says she told him Kevin and Allison were having marital problems.

Speaker 22 It was looking like it was leaning towards a separation.

Speaker 65 I think it's fair to say that he was concerned about the marriage. and that he had shared those concerns with his family.

Speaker 37 As Helgi prepared, she believed she had a compelling story to share with a jury, and it wasn't about love and marriage.

Speaker 65 This case is going to boil down to a lot of science.

Speaker 72 I'm Dr. Bill Smock.
I'm a consultant to the Allen County District Attorney's Office in the death of Mr. Davis.

Speaker 65 When I brought Dr. Smock in and I provided him all our materials, I did not tell him what anyone else thought.

Speaker 30 The defense retained a medical expert of its own, Dr.

Speaker 40 L.J.

Speaker 39 Dragovich, a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist.

Speaker 69 He studies brains, he studies brain injuries, he's passionate about it.

Speaker 35 The two experts would come to radically different conclusions.

Speaker 72 Mr. Davis was beaten to death.

Speaker 73 Kevin Davis died as a result of falling and striking his head on a bottom post of the stairway banister.

Speaker 14 They worked to make sense of a tragedy that started with a phone call.

Speaker 10 911 911 was the address of your emergency.

Speaker 44 I have not heard the call. Would you like to hear it?

Speaker 15 Sure.

Speaker 21 You ready?

Speaker 51 I'm ready.

Speaker 51 There's one everywhere, and I can't look all over. I don't know what people ever done.

Speaker 8 Listen to her.

Speaker 21 I can't believe they did this to her.

Speaker 15 It's unbelievable.

Speaker 41 Such injustice.

Speaker 44 At the East Haven Tavern,

Speaker 45 the regulars were torn.

Speaker 55 A lot of people think she's guilty. A lot of people think she's innocent.

Speaker 61 There's just not a bone in my body that thinks she could have done this.

Speaker 65 I believe that she's not guilty.

Speaker 49 What do you believe happened that night?

Speaker 22 I have no idea.

Speaker 27 In your mind, is Allison Davis a killer?

Speaker 22 I don't know.

Speaker 30 May 5th, 2025.

Speaker 42 Allison has been locked up for 17 months.

Speaker 65 The trial starts tomorrow.

Speaker 3 Morning, May 6th.

Speaker 37 Former Detective James Krueger, now Police Chief Kruger, after a promotion, heads to court.

Speaker 66 I'm anxious.

Speaker 22 What's at stake today is either Kevin Davis gets justice for what was done to him or we let a murderer walk free.

Speaker 69 I just kept thinking what evidence they have to say that Allison murdered him and there just wasn't anything.

Speaker 35 Kruger admits the investigation was flawed, but he isn't making any excuses.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 35 He knows there are challenges, starting with a most basic issue.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 35 And if the chief was a betting man.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 51 At the Allen County Courthouse, Both sides are set to go.

Speaker 32 The prosecution has no murder weapon.

Speaker 26 The prosecution has nowhere to hide from this paltry evidence that it's about to present to you.

Speaker 65 There's no doubt that Kevin was murdered.

Speaker 35 And like Kruger, Helgi knows this case is a tough one.

Speaker 31 So many people think Allison Davis simply could not be a killer.

Speaker 22 It's not Allison. That's not who she is.

Speaker 15 She had no reason.

Speaker 28 Kevin was her world.

Speaker 46 Are you convinced that Allison Davis murdered her husband?

Speaker 22 I'm 100% convinced, yes.

Speaker 53 Fort Wayne's historic courthouse.

Speaker 71 Allison Davis is on trial, charged with murder.

Speaker 14 No cameras inside.

Speaker 53 48 hours is allowed a sketch artist.

Speaker 33 Investigators, doctors, loved ones testify.

Speaker 15 But all eyes are on Allison.

Speaker 49 And what do you see on her face?

Speaker 21 I see...

Speaker 15 love.

Speaker 35 But it isn't love.

Speaker 33 It's forensics that define this trial.

Speaker 36 Doctors Smock and Dragovich and their radically opposing theories.

Speaker 72 Mr. Davis sustained blows to the head, not just on one side, but on the back and the left side as well.

Speaker 31 At trial, Smock presents this CT scan highlighting Kevin's injuries, the multiple fractures to his head.

Speaker 72 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.

Speaker 39 He did not fall down those stairs.

Speaker 2 He believes Allison wielded a weapon that was never found.

Speaker 72 For example, a kettlebell, a weight.

Speaker 72 It certainly could be the end of a baseball bat.

Speaker 73 Kevin Davis was not killed as a result of impacts by baseball bat.

Speaker 21 He suffered only one, one

Speaker 73 impact to the head as his head slammed into that post of the banister.

Speaker 40 That one impact, Dragovich says, led to multiple fractures.

Speaker 4 He says the same impact then caused Kevin's brain to ricochet inside his skull.

Speaker 51 The shattered bone fragments acted like shrapnel, tearing Kevin's brain.

Speaker 73 They claim that Kevin was beaten. They got it wrong.

Speaker 72 I would say Dr. Dragovich got it wrong.

Speaker 32 Dr.

Speaker 64 Smock says, just look at the police body cam video.

Speaker 31 The banister post appears clean.

Speaker 41 There's no evidence Kevin's head struck it.

Speaker 72 There was no blood, no tissue, no hair. on the top of that banister.

Speaker 37 But remember, Dragovich argues the post is clean because Kevin's injuries were internal.

Speaker 73 Kevin never had any open wound anywhere on his body.

Speaker 51 Blood that was found by first responders was on the floor, beneath Kevin's body.

Speaker 59 It came from his nose and mouth.

Speaker 22 According to the defense, his skull hit this. And if you want to follow me down here, Peter.

Speaker 39 Chief Krueger tells us what he believes happened to Kevin.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 22 He takes a blow to the back of the head.

Speaker 41 Legally intoxicated and immobilized by more blows.

Speaker 22 And somewhere in this area is where he loses it and falls.

Speaker 51 Investigators believe Allison dragged 219-pound Kevin across a portion of this floor.

Speaker 22 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.

Speaker 41 And Kruger says there's more evidence of Allison's guilt.

Speaker 64 Kevin's cold body temperature.

Speaker 22 Core body temperature was 91 degrees.

Speaker 32 Dr. Smock says he knows why.

Speaker 72 Kevin Davis was lying there for at least two hours before 911 was called.

Speaker 16 Kevin, can you hear us?

Speaker 51 But in his testimony, Dr.

Speaker 36 Dragovich counters Kevin's low temperature is due to something else.

Speaker 40 The impact with the post destroyed a key part of Kevin's brain.

Speaker 36 It's called the hypothalamus.

Speaker 73 That part of the brain is the actual thermostat for the body.

Speaker 58 The result?

Speaker 73 Your body temperature is out of control. It's a kaput.

Speaker 72 There are so many inconsistencies with that theory.

Speaker 35 So I came up the stairs.

Speaker 40 Kruger took us upstairs to to that bedroom Willow the Pit Bull shared with Kevin and Allison.

Speaker 17 She's up in the bedroom and she's a guard dog.

Speaker 45 Allison had warned Kruger Willow might attack.

Speaker 38 Right now, what I won't do is I won't go in that room.

Speaker 44 Okay.

Speaker 14 Did you ever get into this room?

Speaker 22 I never did, not on that morning. I 100% wish I would have gotten into this room on the morning of the 12th.

Speaker 15 Because...

Speaker 22 The murder weapon could have been in there.

Speaker 30 Chief Kruger has been at the house several times.

Speaker 33 This is the first time Allison's lawyers were able to get inside.

Speaker 33 Wow.

Speaker 21 Oh my goodness.

Speaker 39 That's the staircase right there and there's the post.

Speaker 12 So you hit that and you

Speaker 12 end up, yeah, your feet over here.

Speaker 29 Let's see how steep these stairs are. They are really steep aren't they?

Speaker 47 And narrow.

Speaker 26 Yeah, and narrow.

Speaker 23 It's powerful to be in this house.

Speaker 51 And to picture what they believe were the final fatal steps of Kevin Davis.

Speaker 26 It's an intoxicated guy that fell down the stairs and hit his head on that post right there.

Speaker 41 The trial lasts four days.

Speaker 32 Allison does not take the stand.

Speaker 71 The jury is now out. They just heard closing arguments for about two hours.

Speaker 34 Which story will the jury believe?

Speaker 24 The courthouse is dark except for the jury room.

Speaker 51 Some 21 grueling months have passed

Speaker 63 since the heartbreaking death of Kevin Davis.

Speaker 16 Kevin, can you hear us?

Speaker 32 If convicted of his murder, Allison Davis could spend the rest of her life in prison.

Speaker 47 At 11 p.m., word comes: a verdict.

Speaker 32 Allison's family and attorneys emerge.

Speaker 32 Not guilty. Oh my gosh, she's coming home.

Speaker 33 Allison Davis, not guilty.

Speaker 39 Just moments before, Steve had locked eyes with his daughter as her verdict came down.

Speaker 21 She was crying with joy.

Speaker 28 It was a wonderful moment.

Speaker 26 That family over there,

Speaker 29 that's why we do this work.

Speaker 53 That's exactly why we do this work.

Speaker 33 Kevin's mother, Alta, doesn't want her son to be forgotten.

Speaker 65 He's my son. I've always loved him and always will.

Speaker 29 She accepts the verdict.

Speaker 56 Okay, I'm dealing with it.

Speaker 65 She's still my daughter-in-law, no matter what.

Speaker 3 But where is Allison?

Speaker 40 Back in jail, waiting for her release paperwork.

Speaker 39 A cold but joyous crowd stands vigil.

Speaker 51 Then, at 2:12 a.m., the jailhouse door cracks open.

Speaker 28 Allison comes out, and everybody just erupts with joy.

Speaker 50 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 46 It was a group hug of the ages.

Speaker 28 Yes. Tears saying, Allison, we missed you so much.
It's so good to have you in our arms again.

Speaker 25 It's a lot of emotions, really.

Speaker 30 There is no joy for those who believe the jury got it wrong.

Speaker 15 I was like, oh,

Speaker 22 unbelievable.

Speaker 15 Unbelievable.

Speaker 27 You were stunned by that?

Speaker 15 I was.

Speaker 15 Yeah.

Speaker 40 48 Hours spoke with this juror who asked us not to show her face or use her name.

Speaker 68 Well, the prosecution didn't have a strong case.

Speaker 68 Like there was no weapon. There was no,

Speaker 68 this is where she did it and how she did it.

Speaker 68 The prosecution's theory had a lot of holes.

Speaker 34 And the jury believed the theories of Dr.

Speaker 36 Dragovich.

Speaker 68 He explained everything in very clear terms that we could understand.

Speaker 68 And it just made sense. It made sense to the injury.

Speaker 51 For the family at East Haven Tavern,

Speaker 53 a bittersweet celebration.

Speaker 47 And for Kevin's family, what would you have to say to them?

Speaker 43 I'll just say, I'm so sorry for your loss. It's so devastating.

Speaker 15 What do you hope for her?

Speaker 54 I hope that she can find her place and to get back to that smiling, happy person that she was.

Speaker 54 She didn't deserve a year and a half of her life taken away.

Speaker 54 Sitting in jail. So I was really happy for her.

Speaker 21 Allison has left New Haven and is living with her parents and her dog Willow.

Speaker 20 Sunday, you can count on an NFL on CBS Week 7 schedule featuring divisional rivalries and must-see QBs.

Speaker 20 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.

Speaker 20 It all begins at noon Eastern with the NFL today.

Speaker 20 You can always count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 2 The secrets out. May I speak freely? I prefer.

Speaker 2 The Naked God is now streaming on Paramount Plus. I've seen it a hundred times.
It's a return to comedic glory. A little lower.
A return to comedic glory. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 The Naked God Gop into PG-13, now streaming on Paramount Plus.