Retrial for Marion man charged with killing ex-girlfriend will be delayed

CEDAR RAPIDS — A murder retrial for a Marion man, who is charged with killing his former girlfriend, will not start next month because his lawyer filed a late motion Monday, asking the court to dismiss the charge based on a forensic pathologist’s opinion that the woman was dead before she was stabbed 26 times Sept. 28, 2017.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Sean McPartland, during a pretrial hearing Friday for Greg Davis, 30, didn’t agree to set an evidentiary hearing, as the defense requested, because the expert opinion’s would be a “fact question” for the jury to consider in making a verdict.

McPartland also said he wanted to give the prosecution time to respond and would reserve his decision on whether a hearing on the motion is warranted before the trial.

Alfredo Parrish, Davis’ Des Moines attorney, also told the judge he still needs final reports from three other experts and has consulted a pharmacologist — reports the prosecution would have to review and likely want to have their own experts provide opinions.

Parrish and Assistant Linn County Attorney Mike Harris, in a joint oral motion, asked for the trial, set for Nov. 2, to be set at a later date. Harris said the prosecution would need a few months.

McPartland warned the attorneys that he didn’t know when the trial might be reset — it could be months because of the numerous trials that have been delayed due to the pandemic.

Another hearing will be set to find a new date for trial.

A Linn County jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder in 2018, but it was overturned last year in a 4-3 decision by the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled the trial judge failed to instruct the jury regarding Davis' insanity or diminished capacity defense on the first-degree murder charge, which meant jurors couldn’t consider it.

The jury instruction for the insanity defense was included with the lesser charge, so this error allowed the jury to wrongly conclude the insanity defense applied only to that charge, according to the ruling.

Davis is accused of stabbing 29-year-old Carrie Davis in the Marion home they shared. They had the same last night but weren’t married.

Davis attempted to conceal her body in a roll of carpet, which authorities found Oct. 2, 2017, on a utility trailer parked outside his parents' vacant rental house in Marion.

In Parrish’s motion to dismiss the charge, a nationally known Pennsylvania forensic pathologist and attorney, Dr. Cyril Wecht said in a report that he determined Carrie Davis was dead from acute combined drug intoxication before she was stabbed 26 times by Greg Davis.

According to Wecht’s online bio, he has provided opinions in cases such as President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the death of Elvis Presley and the O.J. Simpson case.

In the motion, Parrish also said another medical expert on Sept. 16 determined Carrie Davis’ cause of death was methamphetamine poisoning.

Parrish argues their opinions are supported by the initial autopsy in this case. Parrish, in the motion, states there’s “little definitive evidence” that she died from stab wounds.

Parrish also said the medical examiner was confusing and vague in his evidence.

If Carrie Davis was already dead at the time the prosecution alleges Greg Davis stabbed her, then she died from drug use, and the murder charge must be dismissed, Parrish said.

The prosecution hasn’t yet responded to the motion.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com