DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Barry Davis believed he could get away with murder.
He had said as much to his girlfriend, Tiffani Steward, some time after he killed John Gregory Hughes and Hiedi Rhodes the night of May 7, 2012, according to her testimony at Davis’ trial.
And while he might have gotten closer to it than most, or was at least able to stave off justice for a while, Davis was found guilty Monday on two counts of first-degree murder, along with 15 other theft-related charges.
A jury recommended Friday that he die for both killings.
“We have waited a long time for this day to come. Barry Davis is an evil person. Hopefully, our families will be able to finally have some closure. I feel that justice has been served,” Susan Hughes, Greg Hughes, first cousin, said after the recommendations were presented.
“Barry Davis has committed a heinous crime and he brutally took away our loved ones,” added Amy Hughes, Greg Hughes’ sister. “Today, we are satisfied with the jury’s recommendation of punishment to the fullest extent of the law.”
After more than a year of investigation, Davis was charged with the murders of Hughes and Rhodes in early 2013. The Walton County Sheriff’s Office alleged he beat and strangled the couple at Hughes’ home in Santa Rosa Beach, then left them face down in a bathtub to drown.
The jury of seven women and five men recommended by a 9-3 vote that Davis be put to death for the murder of Hughes and by a 10-2 count that he die for killing Rhodes, who prosecuting attorney Bobby Elmore had characterized as an innocent killed only because she happened to be present when Davis killed and robbed Hughes.
Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells will impose the sentence after a Spencer Hearing, which is required in all cases in which the death penalty is on the table. Neither the hearing nor the sentencing date was set Friday.
Davis’ confidence that he could walk away from the killings might have stemmed from his successful destruction of a great deal of evidence. Given weeks to cover up his crimes, he cut out blood-stained dry wall at Hughes’ home, removed every stick of furniture from the home, tore out the seats of the Cadillac where he stored his victims’ bodies and, most significantly, coldly and efficiently disposed of Hughes’ and Rhodes’ corpses.
What he didn’t count on was the dogged determination of investigators and prosecutors.
In September 2012 the state failed to win a conviction in a case in which Davis was accused of stealing Hughes’ Corvette and selling it in Orlando for $15,000. Authorities had hoped that with a conviction in hand and Davis in prison, they could get his reluctant associates to come forward and tell them what they knew about his involvement in Hughes’ and Rhodes’ homicides. But Davis’ attorney successfully established the possibility that the missing Hughes could be alive, and perhaps had even orchestrated the car sale from behind the scenes.
Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said investigators doubled down on their efforts after the Corvette theft case to build a case for murder against Davis.
“Literally the whole Walton County Sheriff’s Office worked on the case in one form or another,” prosecutor Bobby Elmore said Friday.
“We felt that he would have been convicted. When he was not, we knew that he was a serious threat to someone’s health and well being,” Adkinson said. “It just worried me that he would kill someone else before we could put the murder case together fully. I just felt like we had to re-double our efforts.”
Elmore got involved following Davis’ February, 2013, arrest for the murders. He said “this case has consumed my life” since then.
“It’s been on my mind when I get up in the morning and when I lay down at night,” he said. “It required that.”
Without bodies, Elmore said he was forced to prove an “absence of life” by providing the jury with evidence that Hughes and Rhodes simply had stopped doing things they did on a regular basis.
”It’s the most fact-intensive case I’ve ever had,” said Elmore, a prosecutor for 35 years.
Elmore said after Friday’s recommendation that he was confident the jurors who convicted Davis “were well satisfied we had proven the deaths.”
The families of Rhodes and Hughes praised the efforts of police and prosecutors.
“The family of Hiedi Ann Rhodes would like to thank the Walton County Sheriff’s Department and Bobby Elmore for all the long hours and hard work they’ve put into the investigation and prosecution,” Rhodes’ sister, Sonja Rhodes, said in a statement. “Hiedi was a loving, forgiving, kind person who never met a stranger. She was taken away from us too soon and will be missed every day.”
Adkinson said the successful conclusion to the Davis case “demonstrates the determination of the Walton County Sheriff’s Office to see justice done.”
“We knew this would be difficult, but we were unwilling to let it go. It took over three years, but we were able to bring some level of closure to the family and protect the public from a ruthless killer,” he said.