DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Checks signed after the disappearance of John “Greg” Hughes were penned by a suspicious hand, family members testified Friday.
Barry Davis, 34, is currently charged with several offenses including the deaths of Hughes, of Santa Rosa Beach, and his girlfriend Heidi Rhodes, of Panama City Beach. The two were reported missing about two years ago. However, neither have been seen or heard from since May 7, 2012, the date prosecutors said they were killed at Hughes’ home by Davis.
During the second full day of the double murder trial, Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore called family members of Hughes to the stand to testify three checks written out to Davis for “moving expenses” and signed by Hughes after his disappearance appeared to be forged.
“That is not my brother’s signature,” said Amy Hughes, his sister. “He wrote in a more block style. There are loops in the J and G.”
Amy Hughes said John Hughes had been receiving disability checks and got a large settlement after an injury on a construction site. The incident left him not only fairly wealthy but also with a permanent disability to his writing hand. From then on he signed his name “J G H,” for brevity, family members testified.
Both sides quarreled over whether jurors should be able to hear the testimony. The jury was removed from the courtroom for their discussions. Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos argued Amy Hughes had not seen her brother’s signature for four years before his disappearance and had only actually seen him sign a check a handful of times.
“She said she saw (Hughes) sign about 20 to 30 documents over 17 years,” Kypreos said. “Maybe something more frequent would make someone more familiar with the changes in the signature.”
However, Amy Hughes said the signatures on the three checks, written for around $4,000 each to Davis, were consistently different from Hughes’ writing style she’d seen since childhood. And Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells allowed jurors to hear the testimony for a large part of Friday’s proceedings.
Despite not having any bodies, Elmore said he intends to introduce a series of witnesses in the course of the remaining trial, which is expected to encompass more than three weeks. During those testimonies, Elmore plans to have Tiffani Steward, Davis’ girlfriend, testify to seeing Davis submerge both victims’ heads in a bath tub after rendering each incapacitated. She has also told investigators Davis later said he’d cut up the bodies and burned them.
Investigators believe Davis intended to kidnap Hughes for a ransom, but Elmore spent much of the morning establishing the date when Hughes and Rhodes went missing and the suspicious appearance of a moving truck at Hughes’ home shortly after.
Rhodes’ sister initiated the missing person investigation May 24, 2012. Bay County Sheriff’s Office also became involved in the Walton County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, but no one had seen or heard from either since May 7 of that year.
Hughes’ neighbors said they last spoke with him May 4. Somewhere around a week later, a moving truck appeared at Hughes’ Santa Rosa home at 135 Arbor Lane on multiple occasions. The first instance on May 14, neighbor Patrick Davis approached Barry Davis, who was driving the truck. In the course of their conversation, he asked the whereabouts of Hughes, he said.
“He said he was in Barbados, and they were going to place his stuff in storage,” Patrick Davis said.
Barry Davis is charged with 12 other counts in connection with allegedly robbing Hughes’ home after authorities suspect the killings took place. Three other people were assisting in the move, including a young man Patrick Davis said he saw carrying a black, plastic garbage bag from the residence.
Another of the movers drove a white Chevy Escalade, which belonged to Hughes. But Hughes was nowhere in sight.
The trial continues Monday. Barry Davis faces the death penalty if convicted of the two counts of first-degree, premeditated murder.