DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore appears to face a daunting task in convincing jurors that Barry Davis killed John “Greg” Hughes and Heidi Rhodes on May 7, 2012 at Hughes’ home in Santa Rosa Beach.
Elmore has no bodies and a handful of witnesses who Davis’ attorney, Spiro Kypreos, seems eager to expose as serial liars.
“All of these witnesses have lied time and time again,” Kypreos said Thursday in his opening statement at Davis’ murder trial. “The state is asking, essentially, that you believe their most recent versions of the facts are the truth.”
But Elmore, a prosecutor for more than 30 years, is nothing if not thorough, and he laid out his plan to convict Davis on two counts of first-degree murder in a two-hour opening statement of his own.
“Evidence will show he disposed of the bodies. Evidence will show they are dead. Death isn’t a body. It is the absence of life,” he said. “Their lives were ended by Barry Davis.”
Davis could face the death penalty if convicted.
The key witness likely will be Tiffani Steward, who Elmore confirmed will take the stand during the trial that could last four weeks. Steward was Davis’ girlfriend on the day almost three years ago that Hughes and Rhodes were last seen, and she has told Walton County sheriff’s investigators she saw him kill them.
In his overview of the evidence they will be presented, Elmore described the death scene to jurors as Steward recalled it. She and Rhodes had gone to Publix to buy Margarita mix. When they returned, “Davis threw Steward aside and grabbed Rhodes and smashed her against the wall.”
He said Steward will testify that she screamed at what she saw and was told “shut up or you’re next.” She left the room and saw Hughes lying in a bedroom covered in blood, Elmore told the jury.
Steward also will testify she saw Davis bind Hughes’ and Rhodes’ feet with duct tape and submerge their heads in a bathtub he filled with water.
Steward will testify, Elmore said, that Davis had made statements about disposing of the bodies by cutting them up and burning them.
Elmore also told the 14 jurors that he will show that Davis stole nearly everything of value from Hughes’ home, “right down to the salt and pepper shakers.”
He said they will see checks showing that Davis was dipping into Hughes’ bank account after he killed him and hear from handwriting experts who will verify forgeries on those checks.
Davis faces 12 charges of theft and fraud in addition to the murder charges.
Elmore said cadaver dogs alerted to the smell of decomposed flesh on Hughes’ Cadillac Escalade. Witnesses will testify they saw Davis driving the Cadillac after May 7, 2012, and evidence will show that he tried, successfully for quite some time, to hide the vehicle from authorities, Elmore added.
Steward’s testimony will be backed up by people who Davis hired as unknowing dupes to help him cover his tracks, he said. Most of them lied at one time or another to deputies investigating the Hughes and Rhodes disappearances.
One thing they told investigators was that they had packed Davis’ home belongings into a Ryder truck, Elmore said. The company, he added, had been out of business since 2002.
Kypreos told jurors that several of Elmore’s witnesses obtained immunity from prosecution by agreeing to testify. Steward, at least, could have faced prison for her role in helping Davis cover up the murder and thefts he is accused of, he said.
Kypreos said he would point out all the many lies that were told and leave it for the jury to find the truth, if they could.
“They lied. The question you’ll have to resolve is when were they lying,” he said. “How motivated were these people to avoid prosecution.”
Elmore called the first witnesses of the day to verify that Heidi Rhodes, who lived in Panama City Beach, had indeed disappeared and that her close family ties would rule out her just running away. He called several family members, a former Bay County sheriff’s deputy and her former landlord to testify that the disappearance was unexpected and that it did not look when she left her home on May 7, 2012, that she had plans to be away for a long while.