PORT ANGELES — Superior Court jurors will begin to decide today whether 60-year-old Scott L. Davis is guilty of attempted murder or assault in the wounding of Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Cortani during a shootout near Sekiu more than one year ago, or whether he is not guilty by reason of insanity.
The eight-man, six-woman juror panel will begin deliberations after hearing closing arguments and receiving jury instructions from Judge Ken Williams today.
Court will resume at 1:30 p.m. in the second-floor courtroom at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., in Port Angeles.
Jurors have the option of convicting the Silverdale man of first-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault or second-degree assault.
Davis’ attorney, public defender Harry Gasnick, presented more than four hours of defense testimony Wednesday from Davis’ sister, his cousin and a Seattle neuropsychologist focused on Davis’ mental state in the months before the shooting and his likely state of mind during the incident.
Davis did not testify.
Severe mental disorder
“He was suffering a severe mental disorder at the time” of the shooting, said Seattle neuropsychologist Kenneth Muscatel, who conducted a forensic psychological evaluation of Davis.
“The evidence is pretty unequivocal.”
Davis was diagnosed in 2007 with Bipolar 1 disorder, characterized by “unrealistic” and “bizarre” thinking and paranoia, Muscatel said.
“He should have to spend some time in jail because he tried to kill my son,” said Cortani’s mother, Sharon Clark, who was present for testimony throughout the trial, which began July 21.
“I do feel he needs to get medical help,” Clark added.
“I hope he’s put in a place where he always will have to take his medication and not hurt anyone, including himself.”
Sekiu shootout
Cortani, 42, was investigating a trespassing complaint that involved Davis at a rental house off state Highway 112 early in the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2009, when a gun battle began with the two about six to eight feet apart, according to court documents and Cortani’s testimony Monday.
Davis drew his pistol first and fired at Cortani, hitting him in the left arm and hip, according to court documents.
Cortani shot Davis in the stomach and left arm.
Cortani testified Monday that after the initial gun battle, in which Davis emptied his pistol, Davis retrieved a 12-gauge shotgun and aimed it at him.
Both men were treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Cortani returned to duty on the West End after he recovered. He has received several awards for bravery, including the state Law Enforcement Medal of Honor, the state’s highest law enforcement award, and the National Sheriff’s Association Medal of Valor and Purple Heart.
He “is doing well,” Carter said. “He’s getting on with his life.”
If found guilty, Davis’ sentence would range from three to nine months in jail for the least-serious charge, second-degree assault, to 20 years in prison for the most serious charge of first-degree murder.
Davis’ sister, cousin testify
Davis’ sister, Jenny Davis of Kingston, and his cousin, former clinical psychologist Mark Davis of Bainbridge Island, testified that her brother’s behavior went dramatically downhill between October and December 2008.
Jenny Davis testified that her brother visited her while concealing a python in his shirt, talked about a threat of cannibalism after a collapse of the world economy, and said that he was preparing for the end by setting up an illegal survival camp of tents in the Hamma Hamma area of Olympic National Park.
He once showed up at her door with his pants around his ankles, telling her he needed to remind himself to go to the bathroom, she said.
“This guy was scary, and this guy was never scary in my life,” she said.
Mark Davis said he visited the Hamma Hamma site with family members after the shooting.
It was strewn with trash, waterlogged books, “ridiculous items like an electric wall clock,” he said.
“It was very sad,” he added.
Knew right from wrong
County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said that a person can be mentally ill but not legally insane.
“There was no evidence to suggest that he wasn’t capable of deliberation, [of] premeditation,” she had said during her cross-examination of Muscatel.
Davis knew right from wrong, Kelly said, because when he emptied his pistol, he retrieved a shotgun.
But Muscatel said Davis “felt he would be killed and had to react.”
“That’s where the mental illness would have played a role,” he said.
According to the jury instruction supplied to courts by the state Administrative Office of the Courts, the jury “must find that, as a result of mental disease or defect, the defendant’s mind was affected to such an extent that the defendant was unable to perceive the nature and quality of the acts with which the defendant is charged or was unable to tell right from wrong with reference to the particular acts with which the defendant is charged.”
Muscatel said Davis is not at risk of re-offending as long as he takes his medication.
“The risk he presents is going off his medication,” Muscatel said, adding that’s difficult to prevent without involuntary commitment in some form.
“You have to have something in place that requires participation, that requires active and regular participation in taking medication.”
Davis is being held in the Clallam County jail on $500,000 bail.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
