Why wasn’t Land Park slaying suspect in custody? Prison records, jail protocol raise questions

Why was the suspect in the Sept. 3 slaying of Land Park resident Kate Tibbitts out of custody when she and her two dogs were killed?

The 51-year-old parolee had a prison record stretching back to Aug. 2, 1990, when he first entered a California prison for convictions involving cocaine and grand theft.

Since then, he has had at least four other convictions over 31 years for drug possession, possession of a firearm by a felon, vehicle theft, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

His parole was revoked at least eight times for various offenses, including a 2017 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in Sacramento that got him a two-year sentence.

A 2018 conviction for robbery in Santa Cruz was supposed to have resulted in a four-year prison sentence to be served concurrently with the Sacramento time.

Court records in Santa Cruz say he was expected to serve 85% of that four years.

“To be served at 85% Total prison sentence 4 years 0 months,” online court records say, adding that he received 109 days of credit toward that sentence for time served in custody and good conduct credits.

But the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says Davis entered prison on the four-year sentence Sept. 18, 2018, and that he was earning credits in prison ranging from 15% to 33% as a violent offender and up to 50% for part of his time.

He served about three years and three months and was released on parole Dec. 15, according to prison records, court documents and law enforcement sources.

Prison officials say Davis “served his full term as defined by law (no expedited release).”

One law enforcement source disputes that, saying Davis received 648 days credit on the four-year sentence while in custody, about 44% of his sentence.

Davis was arrested a day after the slaying and is in custody in the Sacramento County Main Jail facing murder and other charges that could lead to a death penalty prosecution.

The case has sparked outrage among prosecutors and Sacramento residents, and led to a state lawmaker to decide Thursday to pull a bail reform bill that was being heavily criticized in the wake of her slaying.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones has blasted the case as an example of “zero bail” policies allowing the release of dangerous inmates.

“(Kate) did not have to die,” Jones wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. “You see, the suspect was arrested this summer for a felony and then unceremoniously released under the darling of social justice warriors — ’zero bail.’

“He, and thousands of felons like him, are arrested for the gamut of felonies and then simply released on their own ‘promise to appear’, even to this day. ...

“Let me be clear where the blame lies: Liberal, anti-public-safety policies.”

But it is not clear that Davis, who was arrested in June on an auto theft charges by Elk Grove police and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, should have been released on “zero bail.”

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt, Rodney Grassmann last week initially said Sacramento police would have to answer why Davis was released from the jail — which is run by the sheriff — on his own recognizance immediately after his arrest.

“The police department does not have responsibility on releasing people from the County Jail,” police wrote in response.

Grassmann then responded to an email by blaming the Legislature and judges.

Then, Grassmann maintained that Davis was released after his June 18 arrest because the Sacramento Superior Court emergency bail schedule adopted in May during the COVID-19 pandemic required zero bail for his underlying charge of auto theft.

“He was originally brought in on charges that had a zero bail,” Grassmann wrote in an email. “The law let him be released on his own recognizance based on the charges he was booked on. He didn’t have to appear before a judge to get zero bail.”

But a Sacramento Superior Court spokeswoman disputed that, saying Davis could have been held as a parole violator and had his 2017 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon used as the underlying charge that would determine whether bail was required.

The court’s bail schedule calls for $50,000 bail for that charge, but no one in the Sheriff’s Office called the court before releasing Davis without bail, spokeswoman Kim Pedersen said.

“If the June arrest had resulted in a parole violation, our current bail schedule would have resulted in a $50,000 bail,” Pedersen said, adding that the court “has no record” of the jail calling the court for guidance on whether Davis could be released.

Even if the arrest had occurred after-hours or on a weekend, she said, court officials are on duty 24 hours a day to handle such requests.

Instead of holding Davis for his scheduled June 22 arraignment, the Sheriff’s Office released him without bail. Davis failed to appear for his arraignment, and a judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest and bail of $50,500 for failure to appear.

Davis was not arrested until Sept. 4, one day after Tibbitts was killed. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 22.