Prosecutors drop murder case against man charged in October homicide

Prosecutors this week dropped a first-degree felony murder case against a 55-year-old parolee who had been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in October.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said his office asked the court Tuesday to dismiss the charge against Michael Dontae Davis after “concerns came to light during the course of the investigation.” He did not give specifics.

“We are reassessing the case at this time,” Bennett said. The office, he also said, plans to continue its investigation into the slaying of 36-year-old Nathaniel Jackson.

The dismissal was made without prejudice, meaning the case can be refiled at a later date.

“The bottom line is when a case like this comes in, we have an obligation to continue investigating” for its duration, Bennett said.

“We only have one chance to get it right.”

Davis was arrested in October and charged with murdering Jackson, who was found unresponsive and with multiple gunshot wounds at an unoccupied house in the 1500 block of North Minnesota in Wichita on Oct. 9. The criminal court complaint filed against Davis says the killing happened during a cocaine sale or during an aggravated robbery or both.

At the time of his arrest, Davis was a parolee under high supervision in Sedgwick County, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

He was officially released in the murder case Wednesday but remained in Sedgwick County Jail on Friday without bond on a state parole violation, according to online inmate records.

This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Prosecutors drop murder case against man charged in October homicide."