Ex-cop sentenced to life in prison
February 27, 2008 Jurors spared Bobby Cutts Jr. the death penalty in the most
serious charge, an aggravated murder count in the death of the
fetus.
Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles Brown Jr. rejected a
defense request to merge the sentences against Cutts, 30, but he
could have allowed parole eligibility earlier.
Cutts had sobbed on the witness stand when he claimed the death
of 26-year-old Jessie Davis from an elbow to the throat last June
was an accident during an argument. He said he dumped her body in a
park in a panic. He returned to the witness stand after his
conviction to ask jurors to spare his life.
Prosecutors argued that Cutts killed Davis and the nearly
full-term baby at her home in northeast Ohio to avoid making child
support payments.
The couple's son, Blake, then 2½, was found home alone and gave
investigators their first clues to his mother's disappearance when
he said, "Mommy's crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in the
rug," and later, "Daddy's mad."
During statements before sentencing, the victim's mother, Patty
Porter, wept as she told the judge she was risking her family's
disapproval but wanted Cutts to be sentenced in a way that would
allow him to be free at some point to share life with his son,
Blake, now 3.
"I hope and pray I can raise him to forgive you," she said.
"He knows what you did. You would not believe the stories he's
told us."
"I do forgive you," Porter told Cutts, drawing tears from
members of his family.
For more than a week, Cutts denied knowledge of her whereabouts
as thousands searched in the area amid blanket national cable TV
coverage. He finally led authorities to the body, wrapped in a
comforter.