http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/murder-case-dropped-against-ex-austin-recording-st/nnbn5/
Murder case dropped against ex-Austin recording studio owner
September 9, 2015

More than two years after a state appeals court overturned his murder conviction, charges were dropped Wednesday against Dennis Davis in the 1985 cold case death of Natalie Antonetti.

Davis, a former Austin recording studio owner, had been waiting to face a Travis County jury for a second time since August 2013, when the 3rd Court of Appeals threw out his 2011 guilty verdict and 36-year prison sentence, ruling he hadn’t been given adequate legal representation.

But in an order filed Wednesday, District Judge David Wahlberg set aside Davis’ indictment, finding he hadn’t been afforded his constitutional right to a speedy trial. The ruling was a victory for Davis’ defense lawyers, Jackie Wood and Tamara Needles, who had long sought to have the case dismissed, pointing to missing evidence, the deaths of six key witnesses and the fading memories of those still alive.
 
From the beginning, it was a tough case for the state. Prosecutors had no eyewitnesses or concrete confessions, no physical proof Davis had been at Antonetti’s home. Yet, through the years, they had stood behind their belief that they had the right man, even as defense lawyers contended that the facts of the crime bore striking similarities to two other slayings from the 1980s, the deaths of Debra Baker and Christine Morton.

Antonetti, 38, was found beaten on the couch of her South Austin apartment in October 1985. All three victims were white brunettes in their 30s who were killed on the 13th of the month. All three were assaulted while they slept.

Davis, now 65, was sentenced not long before the exoneration of Morton’s husband, Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years in prison for a wrongful conviction that garnered national attention and led to the incarceration of a prosecutor.

Both the state and the defense had last requested to have the case against Davis dismissed in December. But prosecutors wanted it dropped with the chance to reopen it pending further investigation, while his defense lawyers argued it should be thrown out as prosecutors had been negligent in their handling of it.

Without an agreement, prosecutors instead asked for more time to test new DNA evidence. Wood and Needles had hoped to find links to one of two other men once labeled suspects, including Mark Norwood, who was convicted in the 1986 killing of Christine Morton and is awaiting trial in the 1988 death of Baker.

But when the results turned up no new leads, the defense lawyers in July once more sought to have the charges dismissed on the grounds that prosecutors had taken too long to test and hand over evidence, had lost numerous items and had caused multiple delays in taking the case to trial. Prosecutors filed their own response, disagreeing with the defense’s reading of the law.

On Wednesday, Buddy Meyer, director of the trial bureau of the Travis County district attorney’s office, said prosecutors would refrain from comment on the case until they have had the chance to review the judge’s findings and conclusions, which as of late Wednesday hadn’t been filed.

They would then decide whether it was appropriate to file an appeal, Meyer said.

Davis, who had been friends with many of Austin’s up-and-coming musicians in the 1980s, has since been recovering from a heart attack and in June was granted permission to move back to Tennessee. His defense lawyers say the decision will help him get his life back together.