Davis to Defend Himself in Murder Case

BARTOW | Despite repeated warnings, Leon Davis went against a judge’s advice Thursday and decided to serve as his own lawyer on five counts of first-degree murder.

Local prosecutors said they could not recall a Polk County defendant facing the death penalty who has taken such a path.

Davis is charged with fatally shooting two employees, Pravinkumar Patel and Dashrath Patel, at a BP gas station near Lake Alfred on Dec. 7.

He is also accused of robbing a Lake Wales insurance office Dec. 13 where two women were doused with gasoline and set on fire.

Juanita “Jane” Luciano and Yvonne Bustamante later died from their injuries.

Luciano’s infant son, who was delivered by Caesarean section after the attack, also died.

Davis is accused of the deadliest crime rampage in Polk County history.

After Thursday’s hearing, Alicia Littleton, Bustamante’s aunt, said she wasn’t sure how Davis serving as his own lawyer would impact the cases against him.

“I guess we just have to wait and see what he’s going to do,” she said. “I just want justice.”

She said she thinks Davis might be playing games or employing a stalling tactic.

“As long as it takes, we are going to be here,” Littleton said. “It doesn’t matter if it takes two or three years. We are going to be here.”

Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter spent more than 40 minutes questioning Davis about his lack of legal knowledge, and warned him about the “disadvantages and pitfalls” of self-representation.

“I strongly recommend you not go through with this,” Hunter said.

But the 30-year-old Lake Wales man, who graduated high school and never attended college classes, insisted on exercising his right to represent himself.

During Thursday’s hearing, Davis said he had no problem with his current lawyer, Stephen Fisher, but wanted to dismiss him.

Davis said he would use the Polk County Jail’s law library to prepare his murder cases for trial.

“Stuff that I don’t know I can find out from the law library,” he said.

Hunter said he would appoint Fisher to serve as “standby counsel’’ to give legal advice. However, Davis would be responsible for all of his trial preparations.

“You are in charge, and you get to do all those things for yourself,” Hunter said.

Hunter was blunt in his assessment of Davis’ legal ability.

“I don’t believe you are competent to do this,” he said. “Mr. Davis, you have no legal experience whatsoever. You have never even sat on a criminal trial.”

He described Davis’ dilemma as being similar to someone trying to mount a defense against the Internal Revenue Service without the benefit of an accountant.

“Actually, that’s not even close,” Hunter said. “This is way worse.”

Hunter estimated that a murder case can take between 18 months and two years to get to trial.

Basic preparation tasks like taking depositions of witnesses will be greatly complicated since Davis remains in custody at the jail, Hunter said.

But the judge said he wanted to keep the murder cases on track and hoped to schedule a trial date at the next status hearing on Nov. 13.

Assistant state attorneys Bob Antonello and Paul Wallace are prosecuting the murder cases against Davis.

Antonello urged the judge to remind Davis that he would be required to follow the rules of evidence and trial procedure.

“Ignorance of the rules will not be an excuse,” Antonello said.

Davis’ decision to take over his defense is just the latest in a series of strange twists in his cases.

The Public Defender’s Office was originally appointed to represent Davis.

Davis filed a handwritten motion seeking to remove the Public Defender’s Office. He claimed that his lawyers were “clearly concealing and with holding (sic) evidence and information favorable” to him and not acting in his best interests.

The Public Defender’s Office responded with a motion stating Davis’ allegations “have caused the attorney client relationship to deteriorate to the extent that is irretrievably broken.”

Hunter granted the request. Davis’ cases were then taken over by the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.

The office unsuccessfully sought to withdraw from the cases because they were representing a man in an unrelated case whom authorities interviewed as part of their investigation of Davis.

The Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel decided to withdraw from that man’s case so they could pursue him as a possible defense strategy for Davis.

Detectives determined the man wasn’t involved in the murders, court records show.

Then, Davis filed a handwritten motion dated Aug. 14 seeking to represent himself.