Where is zachary davis now?
In August 2012, Zachary Everett Davis put a lot of things in a bag, like clothes and a toothbrush. Zachary was going to run away, but not before he killed his brother Josh and mother Melanie. He waited until Melanie was asleep to sneak into her room and hit her hard with a sledgehammer.
Zachary planned for Josh to die from the fire, so he filled the family game room with petrol and whisky and set it on fire. Josh was lucky that the fire alarm went off before the fire reached his room.
Because Zachary was charged with murder, he was sent to jail for at least 60 years. He also got an extra 20 years for aggravated arson and attempted first-degree murder.
Zachary Davis is in jail because his appeal was turned down.
There’s a good chance that Zachary will spend the rest of his life in a Tennessee jail. He can’t get out of prison until 71 years have passed, and there’s no promise that the parole board will let him go.
Zachary’s lawyer, Randy Lucas, told The Hendersonville Standard that he was going to appeal Zachary’s sentence because the US Supreme Court had ruled that minors could not be given mandatory life sentences without parole. Zachary killed his mother when he was 15, but he was tried as an adult.
Lucas told Zachary that even though he was available for parole after serving his life sentence, the extra 20 years made him really locked up for life. “I believe that in the end, the US Supreme Court will decide that juveniles should be given the chance for parole and rehabilitation,” Lucas said.
Judge Dee David Gay turned down Zachary’s request for a new trial, so his lawyer filed an appeal. Zachary’s case was turned down by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Judge Robert L. Holloway wrote:
“We find that the trial court did not make a mistake when it turned down the defendant’s requests to be found legally incompetent, to have his statement suppressed, and for a new trial. The court also did not make a mistake when it sentenced the defendant to life plus twenty years.”
Gail Cron, Zachary’s paternal grandma, said during the sentencing hearing that Zach wouldn’t have killed the person if he had gotten help for his mental health. Gail said, “Every teacher and advisor should have to go on trial with Zach.” “Zach isn’t a bad guy. He did something very wrong as a child.
Zachary said he didn’t feel anything as he killed his mother with a hammer.
When Zachary’s father died of ALS in 2007, his life changed. Melanie saw that Zachary’s mental health was getting worse, even though he was usually quiet. So she got him help from a mental health professional. Zachary told his therapist that he could hear his dad’s voice during one of their meetings.
Melanie should not have taken Zachary out of therapy so soon. She moved the family to Sumner County, Tennessee. A Reddit user named u/innocentacquitance wrote an AMA about his time at school with Zachary. The person said Zachary was “100%” mentally sick. They went on:
“From what I saw, no one made fun of him. He was seen as an outcast.” Either you didn’t pay attention to him or you kept trying to connect with him but failed every time.
Zachary used his phone a lot. It had an app that showed torture devices and another app that talked about serial killers. Some of the disturbing lines in his notebooks were: “You can’t spell slaughter without laughter.”
He let the chaos in his head show when he killed his mother with a hammer and tried to burn his brother alive. Zachary told an officer in jail that he hit Melanie 20 times because he “wanted to make sure she was dead.”
When Zachary killed Melanie, he said he didn’t feel anything. He also thought he should have killed his brother with the same tool. This is what Judge Gay said:
“What makes me angry is that you haven’t shown any regret or remorse for killing your mother when you were 15 years old.” Mr. Davis, you turned bad; you crossed over to the other side. That’s the truth.”
