Witness has to view horrific photos of Fairmount Park attack

Looking at photos of the injuries Letitia Davis suffered almost a year ago isn’t easy. Davis, 36, had been beaten, raped and set on fire at Wichita’s Fairmount Park.

The photos are shocking, even for a Wichita police officer whose job then was to take the photos and whose duty now is to view them again.

A difficult moment happened Thursday in Sedgwick County District Court in a preliminary hearing that is part of a capital murder case. District Attorney Marc Bennett didn’t show the photos to the entire courtroom, where some of Davis’ relatives could have seen them. Instead, the prosecutor made only one witness, Officer Alli Larison, look at each photo as she testified.

Part of Larison’s job was taking photos of Davis’ injuries at the hospital. One by one, Bennett asked the officer to verify several photos taken after the attack to document the crimes against Davis the night of Nov. 14, 2014.

Larison seemed composed. Her eyes stayed clear, her voice firm. But her body tensed up each time she was asked to peer at a different view of the injuries. She looked just long enough to be able to answer Bennett’s questions. When Bennett asked if she recognized the injuries, Larison replied with a clipped-off “Yes.”

When he stopped having her look at the photos, Larison exhaled, like someone who had just finished an ordeal. It wasn’t dramatic, but it was noticeable. The crime shocked Wichita because of its brutality and left its mark in blood-stained turf and scorched earth in the middle of a historic, well-used park just south of the Wichita State University campus.

Evidence showed that Davis, 36, had left a friend’s house and walked to the nearby park, near 17th and Hillside. She had been beaten, raped and set on fire on a chilly night. She suffered burns on more than half of her body and died eight days later from complications from the burns.

At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Judge Warren Wilbert found enough evidence to send Cornell McNeal, 27, to trial on charges of capital murder and rape in Davis’ death. If convicted of capital murder, McNeal could face the death penalty.

Wilbert noted that evidence at the preliminary hearing, which has to be considered in a light most favorable to the prosecution, showed injuries consistent with rape and that Davis told authorities before she died that she had been beaten, raped and set on fire by a black male she didn’t know. McNeal is African-American.

The judge also noted testimony that a sexual assault examination of Davis led to a DNA match to McNeal.

McNeal, who remains in jail on a $1.25 million bond, now faces a Nov. 12 arraignment at which he will be expected to plead not guilty. A trial date has yet to be set.

Bennett said he is dropping a remaining arson charge against McNeal over a shed fire in the 1600 block of North Erie that occurred the same night as the park attack.

Once police had the DNA match, officers brought McNeal to an interview room where Detective Tim Relph, a 22-year veteran of the homicide unit, found McNeal willing to talk.

Relph testified that McNeal put himself in the area of the park the night of the attack. McNeal said he had been to Kirby’s Beer Store, a bar about four blocks from the park, and had walked off with a woman’s lighter. Video images show a man thought to be McNeal walking up outside the bar about 51 minutes before the park attack was reported.

When Relph asked McNeal about the attack, he said he didn’t know Davis, didn’t have any contact with anyone in the park, didn’t have sex with anyone in the park and hadn’t had sex in two months, the detective testified.

Davis suffered burns from her chest down onto her legs. She had severe cuts on her face and head. One of her ear lobes had been detached. One of her fingernails had been broken.

The first firefighters and police to arrive found her covered in blood and with burns so severe her skin was coming off.

The fire appeared to have spread from her to dry, dormant grass near the park tennis court. The next day, investigators photographed a swath of charred grass and a large blood stain where Davis had been found sitting, nude, her knees drawn up, in shock.

Larison, the police officer who was one of the first to arrive, testified that Davis was telling the emergency crew that she had been beaten, raped and set on fire. Davis said she didn’t know the attacker but said he was a black male.

At the hospital, Davis’ suffering was clear. “She was just screaming,” Larison said. “She had the smell of burntness coming off her.”

Another witness, Wichita firefighter Brian Powell, said a fire crew responded to what was initially reported as a grass fire.

It was cold and not very windy, so the fire was not moving fast and was about a foot high when he arrived, Powell said.

After he described how Davis looked and how emergency crews tried to help her, Powell said, “It was kind of shocking for all of us to be there.”

Alfus McPherson testified that he was asleep at an apartment across the street from the park when his girlfriend woke him up saying that someone was screaming. After a while, McPherson also heard the noise, which he described as a woman’s “blood-curdling scream.”

He went out and saw a fire in the park and told others coming out onto porches to call 911. He saw Davis and went to her and tried to comfort her.

“Actually, she reached out for me,” he said.

McPherson said he stayed with her until emergency crews arrived, telling her that help was on the way and “just hang on.”

Her injuries were so severe, McPherson said. “It’s something I try to put out of my mind.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 6:58 AM with the headline "Witness has to view horrific photos of Fairmount Park attack."