Home invasion defendant to serve year in jail

Judge authorizes work release so Blake Anthony Davis can pay restitution

February 07, 2008|By ERIN JULIUS

The last defendant in a case in a January 2007 home invasion on Broadfording Road must serve a year in jail, a Washington County Circuit Court judge ordered Thursday.

Blake Anthony Davis, 19, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery, according to court records.

A group of 10 to 15 people went to a home in the 16000 block of Broadfording Road to get back $500 taken during a drug deal gone bad, Assistant State's Attorney Viki Pauler has said during other cases in the home invasion.

Neither victim was connected to the drug deal, Pauler said.

Members of the group beat up a man in the home, and someone choked a woman in the home.

Washington County Circuit Judge John Hankins McDowell sentenced Davis Thursday to five years in prison, with all but one year suspended. Davis already had credit for 104 days already served at the Washington County Detention Center.

The judge also authorized work release so Davis could earn money to pay $1,500 in restitution to the victims for damage to their home.

On Jan. 31, McDowell sentenced another man involved in the home invasion.

Stephen Wayne Rudisill, 19, had pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery. The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

On Thursday, McDowell said he had been struck by how young the defendants were in the case. He also explained the disparity in sentences.

Rudisill had taken a loaded shotgun into the situation on Broadfording Road, pointed the gun at one of the victims and struck him with the butt of the gun, McDowell said. Rudisill's involvement in the home invasion was extreme, he said.

The state couldn't prove that Davis had crossed the threshold into the home, Pauler said.

Davis spoke in court before McDowell sentenced him.

He prayed that the victims would find it in their hears to forgive him, and said that jail time was a blessing in disguise because he's learned that freedom should not be taken for granted, Davis said.

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