Man arrested in 1985 Austin killing of Natalie Antonetti, 38 yo

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/07/09/0709coldcase.html
Man arrested in 1985 Austin killing
Nashville man, who worked in Austin music scene in 1980s, charged with murder.


Dennis Davis worked in Austin music scene in '80s.

Natalie Antonetti died from a blow to the head in 1985.
By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Natalie Antonetti's roommate found the 38-year-old on the couch in their Barton Hills Drive apartment early one morning in 1985, bleeding from the head and slurring her speech. Antonetti died 18 days later at Brackenridge Hospital from a blow to the head.

Police were unable to solve the case. They interviewed Antonetti's ex-boyfriend, Dennis Davis, several times over the years, Austin police Detective Tom Walsh said.

Then, in 2007, police got an anonymous tip that brought them back to Davis.

A Travis County grand jury indicted Davis on murder charges June 30, and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him July 2 in Nashville, Tenn. Police would not discuss how the tip led them to Davis, 59, or details of the evidence against him.

"We have testimony and witness statements," Walsh said.

Davis owned a recording studio in Austin called Studio D in the 1980s before moving to Nashville in the 1990s and working in the recording industry, Walsh said.

"He was friends with all the up-and-coming musicians in Austin," said Daylon Wear, a Las Vegas musician who worked with Davis at Studio D. "Everybody worked with him, from Charlie Sexton to the Fabulous Thunderbirds."

Davis was the only person in town who had an expensive piece of equipment called a Neve board, said Wear, who said he helped Davis get gigs in Nashville working as a sound engineer.

"He was a real nice, soft-spoken guy," Wear said.

Antonetti's family immigrated to Houston from Cuba in the 1960s, Walsh said. She attended the University of St. Thomas in Houston and got a teaching certificate. She was a Montessori teacher in Houston before moving to Austin to run her own business, he said.

"She was a very beautiful woman, both inside and out," Walsh said.

Antonetti's sister, Christina Rudolphy of Houston, said in a statement Wednesday that the family is grateful to Austin police and to Walsh "for his perseverance and hard work on Natalie's case that resulted in the arrest."

"We will follow the case with great interest through the process ... hoping that justice will prevail for the family and especially for Natalie."

c

[MuffyBee]

I remember Natalie Antonetti's murder in 1985.  I was living in Austin at the time, and my husband and I met Natalie at a business she owned, "Native Son Nursery", which specialized in plants native to Texas.  We bought a red bud tree, some irises and mountain laurels from her among other plants and shrubs.   She was very kind, helpful and knowledgeable.    It was with shock and great sadness that she was murdered.  What the article doesn't say  and we were told back then is her teenaged son was also in the house, in a bedroom sleeping.   Neither her son nor her roommate heard a struggle, from what I recall.   How horrible for them, to know she was murdered right there, not far from where they were sleeping.   I'm glad there may be justice for Natalie and her family, even after all these years. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/strange/strange_kxan_Police_solve_23_year_old_murder_case_2620111


Police solve 23-year-old
murder case
Ex-boyfriend charged in beating,
death

Updated: Wednesday, 08 Jul 2009, 7:31 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 08 Jul 2009, 4:47 PM EDT

    * Sarah Rafique

AUSTIN (KXAN) - More than two decades after an Austin woman was found severely injured in her apartment, police are charging her ex-boyfriend with murder.

Officials closed the 1985 murder case of then 38-year-old Austin resident, Natalie Antonetti.

On October 13, 1985, Austin police were called to the 1200 block of Barton Springs Road to investigate an assault on a victim who was later identified as Antonetti.

At about 5:15 a.m., Antonettii’s roommate said she found her attacked and on the couch, bleeding from her head and slurring her speech. Police said EMS transported Antonetti to the hospital, where she died 18 days later from head injuries resulting from the attack.

The initial investigation went cold after authorities said they were unable to charge a suspect in this case.

However, the case was re-examined in 2007 by Austin Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit . In the examination, detectives said they followed up on an anonymous tip that was received that year.

The 2007 tip produced more leads, which ultimately led to the indictment of one of Antonettii’s ex-boyfriends.

Throughout the investigation, lead case agent, Tom Walsh, and detectives with the Cold Case Unit worked closely with Assistant Travis County District Attorney Darla Davis.

Some 23 years later, the case was presented to a Travis County grand jury on June 10, and resulted in an indictment for first-degree murder against Dennis Davis.

Though Davis was previously interviewed at the time of the murder, he was never listed as a suspect.

Davis was arrested by deputies of the United States Marshall’s Fugitive Taskforce with the assistance from the Austin Police Intelligence Unit on July 2 in Nashville.

Police said he is currently in custody in Nashville awaiting an extradition hearing.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/070809kvue_cold_case-cb.1e6b726d.html
Man indicted in 1985 Austin cold case

11:40 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 8, 2009

KVUE.com

Austin police detectives Wednesday said they have solved a 1985 cold case and tracked down the suspect in Nashville.

Dennis Davis is awaiting extradition to Travis County on a charge of 1st degree murder in the death of Natalie Antonetti, 38, in October 1985.

Antonetti's roommate found her bleeding from the head and her speech slurred inside their home in the 1200 block of Barton Springs Road. She died 18 days later. No suspects were initially charged in the case, but police say they reopened the case in 2007 when they received an anonymous tip.

Davis, who was a recent ex-boyfriend of Antonetti in 1985, was charged, and a Travis County grand jury returned an indictment in June 2009. It was unclear what evidence led police to charge Davis, who was not originally listed as a suspect in the case.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/woman-beaten-dies-of-injuries-26-years-later-1394815.html
Woman beaten, dies of injuries; 26 years later, ex-boyfriend on trial
April 12, 2011

Susan Otten had been sleeping in her Barton Hills Drive apartment in 1985 when she heard disturbing noises coming from downstairs, where her roommate, Natalie Antonetti, had been sleeping on the couch.

"I heard thumping noises. I heard moaning," she told a Travis County jury Tuesday. "It wasn't like normal crying."

She found Antonetti badly beaten. "I didn't recognize her," Otten said. "She was covered in blood."

Antonetti, 38, died 18 days later of head injuries. Nobody was arrested in the attack until 1999, when Dennis Davis, Antonetti's ex-boyfriend, was charged with her killing.

On Tuesday, Davis, a former South Austin recording studio owner, went on trial on murder charges in state District Judge Mike Lynch's court.
 ::snipping2::
Pryor said that in 2007, after the case had long gone cold, Austin police received a tip that they should look at Davis for Antonetti's murder. The tip came from Davis' wife, Rebecca Davis, Pryor said.

Rebecca Davis told police that years earlier, Dennis Davis had told her that "he had sinned against God and man," Pryor said. "More than that he would not say."

Police reopened the case and eventually talked to an ex-girlfriend of Davis', Gelinda Mudgett, who told them that while she had been dating Davis in the late 1980s, he had confessed to the killing.

"One night he had gone out, (Mudgett) found him curled up on the doorstep of their home, crying, tremendously upset, and he told her, flat-out told her: 'I killed her. I killed Natalie Antonetti,'" Pryor said.

During his opening statement, Davis' lawyer, Wade Russell, discounted Mudgett's testimony.

When police first contacted Mudgett, the "first thing she said was, 'I think he said he killed her one time,'" Russell said.

Russell said Mudgett later changed her story and said she was not sure what Davis had said. Finally, Mudgett told police in great detail about Davis' alleged confession, Russell said.

Russell said there is no forensic evidence linking Davis to the case. Mudgett's testimony is "the crux of the case," he said.
 ::snipping2::
Antonetti had begun dating Davis in early 1985, her son Johnny Goudie testified.

Goudie, an Austin musician, was 16 when his mother was killed.

Goudie said Davis had been friendly to him, and knowing Goudie's interest in music, had invited Goudie to his recording studio.

Goudie said that on Oct. 13, 1985, the morning his mother was attacked, he had been sleeping when Otten — who was his girlfriend — woke him up and told him that his mother was downstairs lying in a pool of blood.

When Goudie found Antonetti, she couldn't talk, he said. His mother walked into the bathroom to clean the blood off her body and went upstairs to change her clothes before an ambulance arrived.

"She was obviously in shock," Goudie said.

One of the first people Otten called that morning was Davis, who arrived at the apartment before she left for the hospital, according to testimony.

Neither Otten nor Goudie said they could remember details about their interactions with Davis that day.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2011/04/13/1985_murder_trial_continues_to.html
1985 murder trial continues today; live updates from the courtroom
April 13, 2011

The trial of a man charged in the beating death of a woman at a Southwest Austin apartment 26 years ago continues today.

Dennis Davis, a former South Austin recording studio owner, is facing murder charges in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court. The trial began yesterday and continues today.

Prosecutors say Dennis beat his girlfriend, Natalie Antonetti, at her apartment in 1985. Antonetti died 18 days later of head injuries.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/man-guilty-in-1985-austin-cold-case
Man guilty in 1985 Austin cold case
Dennis Davis, 61, to be sentenced Monday
April 15, 2011

A Travis County jury Thursday convicted Dennis Davis of murder for the 1985 beating death of his ex-girlfriend Natalie Antonetti.

Jurors deliberated just over three hours. Judge Mike Lynch is expected to sentence Davis on Monday.

The case remained cold for more than 20 years until Davis' wife contacted police in 2007 and said her husband confessed to "sinning against God."
Another ex-girlfriend told police Davis confessed Antonetti's killing to her in 1988, but she was afraid to come forward.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2011/04/18/sentencing_in_1985_murder_begi.html
Former studio owner sentenced to 36 years for 1985 murder
April 18, 2011

Update 3:26 p.m. A judge today sentenced former Austin recording studio owner Dennis Davis to 36 years in prison for the 1985 beating death of 38-year-old Natalie Antonetti, his former girlfriend.

Davis, 62, owned Studio D on South Lamar Boulevard in the 1980s before moving to Nashville, where he worked on albums by the likes of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Because his sentence must follow the 1985 parole laws, he will be eligible for parole when his time served plus good time equals a third of his sentence, or 12 years, prosecutors said.

Davis was convicted of murder by a Travis County jury on Friday. He opted to have state District Judge Mike Lynch sentence him and did not have a discernible reaction to the sentence.  ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kutnews.org/post/state-seeks-gag-order-1986-murder-case
State Seeks Gag Order in 1986 Murder Case
By Brandi Grissom, Texas Tribune
February 22, 2012

 ::snipping2::
The Travis County district attorney's office has also said that it is discussing whether to investigate the 1985 murder of Natalie Antonetti in Austin in connection with Norwood. Like the other two women, Antonetti was a mother in her 30s who was murdered by an intruder who beat her in the head with a large, blunt, wooden object. Antonetti's former boyfriend, Dennis Davis, was convicted and sentenced to 36 years for her murder last year, but he is appealing the conviction.

Hunt said that Norwood, who has been in the Williamson County Jail since his arrest in November, is frustrated. He said that he expects it will be months before the case goes to trial and that he is considering requesting a change of venue because of the continued media attention it has received.

"A case like this is an unusual matter," Hunt said.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 27

[MuffyBee]

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/michael-morton/survivor-1990-attack-ponders-links-other-murders/
Survivor of 1990 Attack Suggests Link to Murders
by Brandi Grissom
February 29, 2012

     ::snipping2::
Scott believes the man who tried to kill her is the same man who killed Christine Morton, Debra Masters Baker and Antonetti. She said investigators with the Texas Attorney General’s Office told her they are looking into her case to see if her attack might be linked to Mark Norwood, a 57-year-old Bastrop resident who is in Williamson County Jail awaiting trial on a murder charge.

Like Scott, the other three women were attacked before dawn as they slept, beaten in the head with a large, blunt wooden object. Like the other women, Scott was a mother in her 30s with brown hair and dark eyes.

Unlike them, she survived.
 ::snipping2::

In the case of Antonetti, who on Oct. 13, 1985, was beaten to death while she slept on her couch in her home near Austin’s Zilker Park, the victim’s former boyfriend Dennis Davis was convicted last year by a Travis County jury and sentenced to 36 years in prison. He maintains his innocence, and the case against him was circumstantial. There was no DNA evidence or eyewitness testimony that linked him to the crime. Police began investigating Davis after his wife made an anonymous call telling them that her husband had “sinned against God and man.” Then, a series of ex-girlfriends told jurors that Davis was violent, and one said he had confessed to murdering Antonetti. The Travis County District Attorney’s office has said it is discussing reopening the investigation into her death to see whether it, too, could be connected to Norwood.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7384838n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox
Redemption song

October 15, 2011 7:45 PM

After a murder rocks the Austin, Texas, music scene, a call to police from an angry wife blows the 26-year-old cold case wide open. Tracy Smith reports.
Who killed Natalie Antonetti?

Videos at Link

Interesting comments

[MuffyBee]

 

Now we're wondering if Mark Norwood murdered not only Christine Morton (Who's husband Michael was wrongfully convicted for her murder and did 25 years) and Debra Baker, but also Natalie Antonelli?  Ken Anderson, the prosecutor at the trial of Michael Morton is being investigated and has been in court on civil charges just this week for withholding information in the murder case of Christine Morton.  He was "convinced" Michael Morton was guilty and knew about the information held back and that it could be used by the defense. Debra Baker is believed to have been  murdered buyMark Norwood after Christine Morton, and her family feels if Ken Anderson had put the true murderer in prison instead of having tunnel vision and going after Michael Morton, she might still be alive.  And now we have a third woman that may be another of Mark Norwood's victims.  It's not enough to make an arrest and conviction in a murder.  It has to be the murderer and not someone they can stick the crime on. 

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/court-throws-out-cold-case-murder-conviction/nZhMB/
Court throws out cold-case murder conviction
August 30, 2013

A state appeals court Friday ordered a new trial for Dennis Davis, convicted in 2011 for the cold-case murder of Natalie Antonetti, who was beaten in her South Austin apartment in 1985.
The 3rd Court of Appeals threw out Davis’ murder conviction and 36-year prison sentence, ruling that he was not given adequate legal representation during his trial.
The court faulted defense lawyer Wade Russell for failing to introduce evidence pointing to another man as the likely killer – a man identified by a neighbor as peeking through a window while holding a club or small bat outside Antonetti’s apartment complex on the morning of her assault.
Antonetti, 38, was hit at least five times in the head with a blunt object, possibly with a club or heavy stick, about 5:15 a.m. as she slept on the couch of her South Austin apartment in October 1985. She slipped into a coma and died 18 days later.
Had they heard the evidence, there is a “reasonable probability that the jury would have come to a different verdict,” the court ruled.
No physical evidence or witnesses directly tied Davis to the crime.
On the day she was killed, Antonetti got home about 2:30 a.m. and went for a walk by the apartment complex pool, returning after 10 minutes. Her roommate, sleeping upstairs, was awakened by thumping sounds about 5:15 a.m. and found Antonetti near the couch, dazed and bleeding from her head.

Lacking fingerprints, witnesses or a murder weapon, the Antonetti case languished until a 2007 call to the homicide tip line from Becky Davis, Dennis Davis’ wife, who suggested that detectives focus on her husband.

Dennis Davis, she said, raised her suspicions when he told her in 1991 that he had “sinned against man and God.”
A new group of investigators tracked down several new witnesses, including Gelinda Mudgett, a former girlfriend who testified that Davis told her in 1988 that he had killed Antonetti. She said that she didn’t come forward because she feared Davis. Defense lawyers characterized her as a bitter ex-girlfriend out for revenge.
Prosecutors also called Amparo Garcia-Crow, the woman Davis had said he was with the night Antonetti was killed. But Garcia-Crow testified that they were not together that night.
Arguing that Davis killed Antonetti because he was jealous of her new love interest, prosecutors also produced a witness who recalled seeing Davis and Antonetti arguing in a nightclub on the night of the slaying or a day earlier.
Becky Davis also testified, but on her husband’s behalf, saying she was angry about their pending divorce when she called police in 2007. The Davises later reconciled.
Becky Davis said that her husband never confessed to killing Antonetti, and she never asked him to explain what he meant by sinning “against man and God.” Becky Davis testified that at the time he said the phrase, she believed he was talking about not visiting his mother in the hospital.
Last February, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office indicated that its lawyers would conduct an internal review of the evidence in the Antonetti case because of the striking similarities to two other murders from the late 1980s.
Christine Morton, 31, was killed by eight blows to the head as she lay in bed at her southwestern Williamson County home in August 1986, probably shortly after her husband, Michael, left for work at his usual time, 5:30 a.m. Investigators found wood chips from a blunt weapon, which was never recovered, embedded in her hair.
Debra Masters Baker, 34, was beaten to death in bed at her North Austin home in January 1988 with six blows to the head, also with a blunt object that was not recovered. Baker, who was home alone, was last seen by relatives around midnight.
The three slayings share numerous similarities. All three victims were Anglo brunettes in their 30s who were killed on the 13th of the month.
Mark Alan Norwood, a former carpet installer who had lived within two blocks of Baker, was found guilty of Christine Morton’s murder and has been charged with murdering Baker.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/30/new-doubts-arise-cold-case-was-thought-solved/
Appeals Court Orders New Trial for Dennis Davis
August 30, 2013

Updated, Aug. 30, 2013:

A Texas appeals court on Friday ordered a new trial for Dennis Davis, who is serving 36 years in prison for the 1985 murder of Natalie Antonetti of Austin.

In an opinion, the 3rd Court of Appeals agreed with Davis' assertion that his trial counsel was ineffective and did not present witness testimony relevant to the case, among other claims. Davis said his counsel did not offer evidence of a neighbor who claims he saw another person — not Davis — holding a club or small bat at Antonetti's home the morning she was bludgeoned to death.

"Because we conclude that Davis has established that his counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and prejudiced his defense, we will reverse the trial court's judgment and remand this cause for a new trial," according to Friday's court opinion.

Original story:

For 26 years, the gruesome beating death of Natalie Antonetti — a carefree spirit and loving mother — remained a mystery. Austin police couldn’t find anyone with a motive to hurt the 38-year-old Cuba native who thrived on the city’s live music scene and often invited friends over for haircuts and home-cooked meals.

Last year, Travis County prosecutors convicted Dennis Davis of the murder after chasing down tips from his estranged wife and a string of ex-girlfriends. A jury agreed with prosecutors that Davis had been abusive and jealous and flew into a rage and bashed Antonetti’s head in with a bat as she slept on her couch on Oct. 13, 1985.

But the case against Davis, now 62, was based largely on the testimony of people recounting events more than two decades old. Less than a year after Davis was sentenced to 36 years in prison, Travis County prosecutors are re-examining the case, searching for DNA that might answer new questions about whether another man — one whose DNA has been connected to two eerily similar killings — could be linked to Antonetti’s murder.
Much more... (Important read & background)
Just months after Davis began his sentence, Michael Morton was exonerated in the 1986 murder of his wife, Christine Morton. He had served 25 years of a life sentence. New DNA evidence showed that another man, Mark Norwood, was linked to the crime. Norwood’s DNA was also found at the scene of the unsolved 1988 murder of Debra Masters Baker.

Norwood, a 57-year-old Bastrop dishwasher, faces trial in ChristineMorton’s murder and remains a suspect in the Baker murder. His lawyer, Russell Hunt Jr., has said Norwood has denies killing anyone.

Just like Antonetti, the other two women were bludgeoned in the head as they slept. The assailant entered their homes in the early morning hours through unlocked doors. Little or nothing was stolen, and none of the women were sexually assaulted. The three women were all brunettes in their 30s. And each of the murders occurred on the 13th day of the month.

The women also lived in close proximity to Norwood, who worked as a handyman and carpet installer in the 1980s. Norwood lived about 12 miles from Morton, a few blocks from Baker and about nine miles from Antonetti.

After reading about the striking similarities in a Texas Tribune report, Pryor said the district attorney’s office decided to re-examine the evidence in the Antonetti case. Items from the crime scene, including clothes and furniture coverings, will be examined to determine if enough DNA exists to test the biological material and compare it to Norwood’s DNA.

“In any murder case you’re going to get some weird coincidences,” Pryor said. “DNA is where we should put the weight if we have it and not coincidences.”

McDonald said he hopes that if investigators find DNA, they also compare it to Odem. Meanwhile, he is preparing to file an appeal of Davis’ conviction arguing that there was too little evidence to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Davis said he is doing his own legal research, spending hours each day in the prison law library and learning from other inmates who have spent years poring over stacks of law books. And, he’s praying.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/order-for-new-trial-in-1985-cold-case-murder-stand/ndDhp/
Order for new trial in 1985 cold-case murder stands
February 5, 2014


The state’s highest criminal court declined Wednesday to review a lower-court decision to order a new trial for Dennis Davis, convicted in 2011 for the cold-case murder of Natalie Antonetti, who was beaten in her South Austin apartment in 1985.
Last August, the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin threw out Davis’ murder conviction and 36-year prison sentence, ruling that he wasn’t given adequate legal representation during his trial.
Travis County prosecutors asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to overrule the lower court and reinstate Davis’ conviction, but the nine-member court of last resort for criminal matters declined — without comment — to accept the case Wednesday.
Antonetti, 38, had been hit at least five times in the head with a blunt object, possibly a club or heavy stick, about 5:15 a.m. as she slept on the couch in October 1985. She slipped into a coma and died 18 days later.
The attack bore striking similarities to two other 1980s murders: Christine Morton of southwest Williamson County and Debra Masters Baker of North Austin, both beaten to death with unrecovered pieces of wood as they lay in bed.
Morton’s husband, Michael Morton, served almost 25 years in prison before he was freed in 2011 when DNA tied Mark Alan Norwood, a former carpet installer, to both crimes. Norwood was sentenced last year to life in prison for Morton’s 1986 murder, and he has been charged with capital murder in Baker’s 1988 death.
Members of the Baker and Morton families have said they believe Norwood is a prime suspect in Antonetti’s murder.
Davis’ appeal, however, focused on another possible suspect — John Martin Odem, who lived in Antonetti’s apartment complex.
In its ruling last year, the 3rd Court of Appeals noted that Davis’ trial lawyer possessed, but failed to introduce, police documents showing that an Antonetti neighbor — when shown a lineup of photos — identified Odem as the man seen lurking with a bat on the night of her attack.
In addition, the court said, the police documents showed:
• Odem was angry with Antonetti after she ended a brief relationship with him.
• Police questioned Odem in 1986 while he was in custody for the sexual assault of a neighbor three months after Antonetti was killed.
• While being questioned, Odem failed a polygraph test, leading the test examiner to conclude that he was “100 percent certain that Odem is responsible for the death of Antonetti,” the opinion said.
Had jurors heard the evidence, there is “a reasonable probability” that they would have come to a different verdict, the court ruled. No physical evidence or witnesses directly tied Davis, who owned a South Austin recording studio, to Antonetti’s death.
Last spring, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office initiated an informal review of the evidence against Davis because of the similarities in the attacks on Antonetti, Morton and Baker. That review, however, found no additional DNA testing that could be done, an official said last year.

[MuffyBee]

Watch 42 minute video, read the story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-murder-of-natalie-antonetti/
"48 HOURS" PRESENTS: REDEMPTION SONG
Who killed Natalie Antonetti? An unexpected turn of events brings a closed case back to square one
May 24, 2014


[This story originally aired on Oct. 15, 2011. It was updated on May 24, 2014.]

Most of the time when we bring you a story, there's a beginning, middle and end. And so it was when we first reported on the murder of a young mother named Natalie Antonetti. We thought the case had been solved and closed. It wasn't. An unexpected turn of the events brought this crime scene back to square one. -- Tracy Smith

(CBS) AUSTIN, Texas -- "There's no way to ever forget. It was really, really a horrible scene," Johnny Goudie told CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith.

In 1985, Johnny was just 16. Before dawn that October morning, he heard something, rolled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs. It was his mom, Natalie Antonetti.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/court-throws-out-cold-case-murder-conviction/nZhMB/
Court throws out cold-case murder conviction
August 30, 2014

A state appeals court Friday ordered a new trial for Dennis Davis, convicted in 2011 for the cold-case murder of Natalie Antonetti, who was beaten in her South Austin apartment in 1985.
The 3rd Court of Appeals threw out Davis’ murder conviction and 36-year prison sentence, ruling that he was not given adequate legal representation during his trial.
The court faulted defense lawyer Wade Russell for failing to introduce evidence pointing to another man as the likely killer – a man identified by a neighbor as peeking through a window while holding a club or small bat outside Antonetti’s apartment complex on the morning of her assault.
Antonetti, 38, was hit at least five times in the head with a blunt object, possibly with a club or heavy stick, about 5:15 a.m. as she slept on the couch of her South Austin apartment in October 1985. She slipped into a coma and died 18 days later.
Had they heard the evidence, there is a “reasonable probability that the jury would have come to a different verdict,” the court ruled.
No physical evidence or witnesses directly tied Davis to the crime.
On the day she was killed, Antonetti got home about 2:30 a.m. and went for a walk by the apartment complex pool, returning after 10 minutes. Her roommate, sleeping upstairs, was awakened by thumping sounds about 5:15 a.m. and found Antonetti near the couch, dazed and bleeding from her head.
Lacking fingerprints, witnesses or a murder weapon, the Antonetti case languished until a 2007 call to the homicide tip line from Becky Davis, Dennis Davis’ wife, who suggested that detectives focus on her husband.
Dennis Davis, she said, raised her suspicions when he told her in 1991 that he had “sinned against man and God.”
A new group of investigators tracked down several new witnesses, including Gelinda Mudgett, a former girlfriend who testified that Davis told her in 1988 that he had killed Antonetti. She said that she didn’t come forward because she feared Davis. Defense lawyers characterized her as a bitter ex-girlfriend out for revenge.
Prosecutors also called Amparo Garcia-Crow, the woman Davis had said he was with the night Antonetti was killed. But Garcia-Crow testified that they were not together that night.
Arguing that Davis killed Antonetti because he was jealous of her new love interest, prosecutors also produced a witness who recalled seeing Davis and Antonetti arguing in a nightclub on the night of the slaying or a day earlier.
Becky Davis also testified, but on her husband’s behalf, saying she was angry about their pending divorce when she called police in 2007. The Davises later reconciled.
Becky Davis said that her husband never confessed to killing Antonetti, and she never asked him to explain what he meant by sinning “against man and God.” Becky Davis testified that at the time he said the phrase, she believed he was talking about not visiting his mother in the hospital.
Last February, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office indicated that its lawyers would conduct an internal review of the evidence in the Antonetti case because of the striking similarities to two other murders from the late 1980s.
Christine Morton, 31, was killed by eight blows to the head as she lay in bed at her southwestern Williamson County home in August 1986, probably shortly after her husband, Michael, left for work at his usual time, 5:30 a.m. Investigators found wood chips from a blunt weapon, which was never recovered, embedded in her hair.
Debra Masters Baker, 34, was beaten to death in bed at her North Austin home in January 1988 with six blows to the head, also with a blunt object that was not recovered. Baker, who was home alone, was last seen by relatives around midnight.
The three slayings share numerous similarities. All three victims were Anglo brunettes in their 30s who were killed on the 13th of the month.
Mark Alan Norwood, a former carpet installer who had lived within two blocks of Baker, was found guilty of Christine Morton’s murder and has been charged with murdering Baker.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/judge-refuses-to-dismiss-murder-charges-against-de/nhhhw/
Judge refuses to dismiss murder charges against Dennis Davis
October 13, 2014

More than a year after a state appeals court overturned the murder conviction against Dennis Davis, found guilty in the 1985 cold case death of Natalie Antonetti, his defense lawyers on Monday sought to have the charges against him dropped, saying Travis County prosecutors had denied their client his right to a speedy trial.
Davis, a former Austin recording studio owner, has been waiting for his case to go before a jury once more since last August, when the 3rd Court of Appeals threw out his 2011 conviction and 36-year prison sentence, ruling he had not been given adequate legal representation.
In court Monday, attorneys Jackie Wood and Tamara Needles said the state had taken too long to hand over evidence and had not located some items they needed to prepare their defense in time for a Dec. 8 retrial. But district Judge David Wahlberg denied their request, finding the delay had been warranted given the complexity of the case.
No physical evidence or witnesses directly tied Davis, now 64, to the crime, and the case against him relied largely on the testimony of witnesses given more than two decades after Antonetti, 38, was found beaten on the couch of her South Austin apartment in October 1985.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/prosecutors-seek-to-dismiss-murder-case-against-de/njFqd/
Prosecutors seek to dismiss murder case against Dennis Davis
November 25, 2014

More than a year after a state appeals court overturned the murder conviction against Dennis Davis, who was found guilty in the 1985 death of Natalie Antonetti, a Travis County judge is weighing whether to dismiss the charges against him.

In a surprising move Tuesday morning, prosecutors requested that Judge David Wahlberg drop the cold case against the former Austin recording studio owner pending further investigation. But defense lawyers refused, saying that decision would not be fair to Davis, who served more than two years in prison and whose life has been wrecked by the allegations.

“There is nothing else left to investigate,” defense attorney Jackie Wood told the judge. “They have investigated this case to death. My client wants his day in court. He wants to be exonerated, which we believe will happen if this case goes to trial again.”

Prosecutors seek to dismiss murder case against Dennis Davis photo
Dennis Davis
Davis, now 64, has been waiting for his case to go before a jury once more since last August, when the 3rd Court of Appeals threw out his 2011 conviction and 36-year prison sentence, ruling he had not been given adequate legal representation.

Wood and defense lawyer Tamara Needles last week filed their own petition — their second this year — to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the state has denied their client his right to a speedy trial. The lawyers say prosecutors have taken too long to hand over evidence and have since lost numerous items they need to prepare their defense.

The case has been scheduled for retrial Dec. 8.

But Wahlberg said Tuesday he would consider both state and defense requests and would need more time to come to a decision. He asked lawyers from both sides to meet with him in closed chambers to go through the evidence, which he said he found largely prejudicial in favor of the defense.

No physical evidence or witnesses directly tied Davis to the crime, and the case against him had relied largely on the testimony of witnesses given more than two decades after Antonetti, 38, was found beaten on the couch of her South Austin apartment in October 1985.

Since her death, six witnesses have died, including a neighbor central to the state’s case.

Another hearing has been scheduled Tuesday afternoon, but it is unclear whether a ruling will come at that time.

“I have some serious concerns about the state of this case and whether it is possible for anyone – the state or the defense – to have a fair trial before the community,” Wahlberg told lawyers Tuesday. “The dismissal pending further investigation would preclude him from attempting to assert his innocence.”

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Here is some background:
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/crime-law/judge-refuses-to-dismiss-murder-charges-against-de/nhhsB/#f51389f0.3708363.735562
Judge refuses to dismiss murder charges against Dennis Davis
Posted: 7:12 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, 2014

(There's a lot to read, but here is snippet at end of article)

 
Davis was sentenced not long before the exoneration of Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years in prison after he had been convicted in the 1986 murder of his wife, Christine Morton. New DNA evidence in that case linked another man, Mark Norwood, to the killing.

The Travis County district attorney’s office in February 2012 indicated that its lawyers would conduct an internal review of the evidence in the Antonetti case because of similarities to two other homicides from the late 1980s, including that of Morton’s. Buddy Meyer, the director of the office’s trial bureau, told the American-Statesman that review was conducted about a year ago and no connection was found between the Davis case and any other killings.

[MuffyBee]

What the heck?  This doesn't belong under "finally solved" anymore.    

What a mess!!   

[Sister]

What the heck?  This doesn't belong under "finally solved" anymore.    

What a mess!!   

I absolutely agree Muffy 

There needs to be justice -- but it need to be placed correctly!