WV- Man killed himself before arraignment

6-29-2006 West Virginia:

The man who shot and killed himself in a downtown Charleston office building had confessed to police that he had sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl in 2005. Kenneth M. Davis II, 31, killed himself in the lobby of a legal aid services building on 922 Quarrier Street at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, less than an hour before he was to be arraigned on a 10-count indictment for sexual abuse of a minor by a guardian and third-degree sexual assault charges. According to court documents, Davis told police of several encounters with the victim from February to April 2005 at his South Charleston home and outside the girl's apartment. The victim's mother called police April 4, 2005, when she became suspicious of the relationship and Davis was arrested the following day, court records show.

Davis told detectives in a taped confession he met the girl's parents through work and had a three-year sexual relationship that ended in early 2003. Davis babysat the girl and her 8-year-old brother on several occasions and told them he knew magic, according to the victim's statements to police. Friendly hugging in February 2005 apparently later turned into kissing and fondling, Davis told police. Both Davis and the victim told South Charleston detectives they had sex on two occasions in March 2005, both of which were consensual. The victim said she had been given alcohol on many of her visits with Davis. The victim said Davis told her she was beautiful and how he wanted to make her happy. She told police that Davis wanted to marry her and though she didn't take his proposal seriously, she loved him.

On one occasion, the victim claimed he transformed himself into another person named "Jade." She told police she believed she was having sex with "Jade" who was inside Davis' body. Davis apparently wrestled with the girl and her brother and attempted to teach them self-defense techniques. He told police one occasion led them back to his bedroom. Tim Smith, Davis' public defender, told court officials of the suicide just before his 10:30 a.m. hearing in front of Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom. Smith did not return phone calls to his office. Charleston police are puzzled what drove Davis to kill himself in the Quarrier Street building even after finding a suicide note near his body. South Charleston Detective P.C. Rader, who interviewed Davis during his taped confession, said he had been the victim of an armed robbery while working at a 7-Eleven convenience store in July 2004. Rader hadn't spoken with Davis since the day of his arrest in April 2005.

"He went a long way to try to put this stuff behind him," Rader said. "To me, it shows some kind of underlying issue as well." Davis and his brother , Kraig, a 22-year-old sergeant in the Marines, were each shot three times while shooting pool at a Kanawha City bar in September 1999. Kenneth Davis, then 24, survived the attack but his brother was killed instantly. Kraig Davis was a nuclear, chemical and biological weapons defense specialist in the 2nd Tank Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division, according to military officials. Virginia Huffman, who lived next to Kenneth Davis on Pennsylvania Avenue in South Charleston, said she hadn't seen him for some time. "I knew him a little," Huffman said. "He was a wonderful person. I couldn't have asked for a better neighbor than that man." ..more.. : by Michael A. Jones, Daily Mail Staff