Shooter convicted of murder in 2019 execution-style killing on south Macon street
.JPG "Javarius Vanderick Davis in the moments after a Bibb County jury found him guilty Wednesday in the March 2019 shooting death of Deshafore DeAndre Hicks on Villa Crest Avenue in southeast Macon.")
Late on the afternoon of March 14, 2019, two women in their early 60s drove up Villa Crest Avenue in southeast Macon and watched aghast as a man with a .22-caliber gun, mere feet in front of them, opened fire on another man.
The gunman unleashed at least 14 shots. Nine of the bullets struck the victim.
One ripped through the windshield of the witnesses’ car.
Another was fired into the back of the victim’s head as the gunman stood over him, a 21-year-old named Deshafore DeAndre Hicks, and squeezed the trigger.
The violent episode was recounted in court Tuesday in the murder trial of Javarius Venderick “J-Black” Davis, who was accused of killing Hicks.
On Wednesday, a jury found Davis guilty of murder and firearms-possession charges.
Speedy trial
Testimony in the case moved quickly. The time from opening statements to closing arguments spanned two and a half hours, making it one of the swiftest-moving murder prosecutions veteran courtroom observers had ever seen.
But prosecutors, as it turned out, apparently didn’t need much time.
In laying out their case against Davis, they made no mention of a motive and offered no hint as to why Davis, now 34, had attacked Hicks, gunning him down in broad daylight.
The shooting played out just east of Houston Avenue and the Pendleton Homes housing project, not far from a corner store where one of the women in the car had seen the gunman earlier.
She soon told the police the shooter’s street name, “J-Black.” Within hours, investigators arrested Davis.
Davis, 31 at the time, had been out of prison for about six years after serving about four years for a cocaine-possession conviction in a case that linked him to a 2008 shooting and involvement in a group known as the Bottom Side Gangstas.
There was only the one eyewitness who put Davis at the scene. And there was one material witness, Davis’ former girlfriend, who reluctantly came to court Tuesday.
She took the stand and told jurors that Davis called her around the time of the shooting and said he needed a ride, adding, “I just killed somebody.”
Aside from that, there was no more evidence to present, and Davis chose not to testify.
The jury of 10 women and two men deliberated for about three and a half hours before delivering their verdict.
He will be sentenced later and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 6:09 PM.