$5 million bond for suspect in woman’s death

updated 8:07 p.m. ET June 25, 2007

CANTON, Ohio - A police officer accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her nearly full-term fetus made his first court appearance Monday and was ordered held on $5 million bond.

Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, was expressionless as a judge reviewed his case. He stood behind a window separating him from the courtroom, with his girlfriend’s family seated a few feet away.

Jessie Davis, 26, was missing for about a week before her body was found Saturday in a park. Cutts is the father of her 2-year-old son, and Davis’ relatives have said he is the father of the baby girl she was due to deliver July 3 and planned to name Chloe.

Davis’ mother, Patricia Porter, stood in the front row of the courtroom and stared at Cutts as he surveyed the audience. Porter held the hand of daughter Whitney Davis while she stood glaring at Cutts.

“I just wanted him to see us, to know what he’s done to our family,” Whitney Davis said later. “I’m just disgusted with him.”

Porter stood again when one of Cutts’ former high school classmates appeared in front of the judge.

AP Jessie Davis

Myisha Ferrell, 29, is accused of lying to investigators about the case. She was ordered held on $500,000 bond.

Cutts’ attorney, Bradley Iams, declined to discuss details of the charges against his client or anything Cutts said to him during the court appearance. He said it was too early to say whether a trial would have to be moved out of Stark County, and that he was not surprised by the bond amount.

Cutts, arrested Saturday, is accused of killing Davis and the fetus June 14 at her home in nearby Lake Township.

Davis’ mother last spoke to her daughter a day before authorities say she was killed. Davis was reported missing after the mother found her grandson home alone, with bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor. The boy, Blake, gave investigators some of their first clues, saying: “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug.”

Son ‘talks’ to mom on cell phone
Family members have told Blake that his mother is in heaven, Porter said.

“Blake is doing as well as can be expected for a 2½-year-old whose mom is not coming home,” Porter said. “He has an old cell phone and he calls her and talks to her.”

Her body was found nine days after authorities believe she was killed. Determining the cause of death will take weeks because of advanced decomposition, the medical examiner’s office said Monday. The office will test the paternity of the fetus and conduct toxicology and DNA tests and a skeletal analysis.

Ohio law allows a murder charge against someone accused of killing a fetus that would have been able to live outside the womb.

Authorities have not said what led them to Davis’ body, about 25 miles from her home, in an area of a national park with a dirt road, a small dirt parking area and a couple of benches overlooking a grassy field. Thousands of volunteers searched for Davis for several days in the area around her home.

The sheriff’s office, which is leading the investigation, has not released further information about the obstruction of justice charge against Ferrell, who was arrested Sunday. Her attorney did not comment to reporters after the hearing.

Boyfriend has two daughters
Cutts is married and has a daughter with his wife. He has said he and his wife are separated and that she knew about his relationship with Davis. Iams said Cutts was suspended without pay Monday by the Canton police department.

Cutts also has a 9-year-old daughter with another woman, Nikki Giavasis, who now lives in Los Angeles. The two lived together for a while, but when she began seeing another man in 1998, Cutts was accused of breaking into her home while she was inside with former NBA player Shawn Kemp of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Giavasis told police she feared for her safety. The pair are involved in a custody dispute.

Giavasis told The Associated Press they were together about four months, and confrontations began after she broke off their relationship. Giavasis said the two had several physical confrontations.

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