On the afternoon of February 18, 1986, a 21-year-old woman went to the trailer home of 55-year-old Dewey Davis and his 26-year-old son, Gerald Davis, in St. Albans, West Virginia. The woman, who was identified in court as E.W., was a friend of the family and went there to do laundry.
The woman went to retrieve the laundry that evening. She later told police that Gerald Davis asked her to come to his bedroom. When she refused, he grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her toward the bedroom. E.W. said she wrested herself free, tried to run out the back door, but could not get the door open. She said she then ran to the living room to ask Dewey Davis for help, but Gerald grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the dining room where he struck her and began choking her.
She said Gerald forced her into the bedroom, threw her on the bed, and raped her while Dewey watched. Afterward, she said, when both men left the room, she ran to a neighbor. The neighbor refused to help, E.W. said, so she drove her car, which had a slashed tire, about a quarter of a mile to a friend, Rose Shaffer, who noted that E.W. was hysterical, had red marks on her neck and throat, and was wearing no jacket and only one shoe.
Shaffer called the police. Deputies with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office took E.W. to Charleston Area Medical Center. E.W. was found to have a cut lip and abrasions to her face and vulva. Her clothes were taken by the police for analysis, and seminal fluid was found on her underwear. A rape kit was taken.
The following day, sheriff's deputies went to the trailer to execute a search warrant. The police found E.W.'s missing shoe and her jacket in her laundry basket on the porch. They also seized sheets and towels found on Gerald Davis’s bed and some of his clothing, all of which were subsequently found to contain seminal fluid stains.
On February 28, 1986, Dewey and Gerald were each charged with one count each of second-degree sexual assault, abduction, and first-degree sexual abuse.
In July 1986, Gerald Davis went to trial in Kanawha County Circuit Court. E.W. recounted the attack in the trailer, saying that Gerald Davis had raped her while Dewey Davis watched.
Fred Zain, the chief serologist for the state of West Virginia, testified that he found semen on several pieces of evidence and tested the semen for a blood type. Although the semen had characteristics of a person with type A blood, Zain testified that the signs of type A could have come from contamination. He said the contributor was more likely type O, which was the blood type of E.W. and Gerald Davis. Zain said only Gerald Davis and 3.5 percent of the male population could have been the perpetrator.
Gerald Davis testified and denied the attack. He said that E.W. had been in the trailer that evening, but that nothing happened.
On July 23, 1986, a jury convicted Gerald Davis of all of the charges. He was sentenced to 14 to 35 years in prison.
Dewey Davis went to trial in Kanawha County Circuit Court in March 1987. The prosecution evidence, including the testimony of Zain, mirrored Gerald Davis’s trial. The defense contended that Dewey Davis was intoxicated to the point of being passed out that evening and had no memory of anything.
On March 11, 1987, a jury convicted Dewey Davis of all of the charges. He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.
Gerald Davis’s convictions were affirmed in December 1988 by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In December 1989, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that only Dewey Davis’s conviction for second-degree sexual abuse should stand. His other convictions were dismissed.
In 1992, Glen Woodall was exonerated by DNA testing. Woodall had been convicted of two rapes and other crimes in Cabell County, West Virginia, in part based on similar flawed testimony by Zain. In Woodall’s case, the DNA testing showed that Zain had testified falsely about the serology results. As a result, other defendants convicted based on Zain’s testimony began to seek similar DNA testing, including Dewey and Gerald Davis.
In addition, the West Virginia Supreme Court ordered a review of all cases handled by Zain, and in late 1993 found that Zain had fabricated evidence in more than 100 cases between 1986 and 1989.
In 1993, Gerald Davis filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus seeking DNA testing of the evidence. The defense was granted access to the evidence, which was sent to the Center for Blood Research, in Boston, Massachusetts.
In March 1994, DNA expert Dr. David Bing from the Center for Blood Research, reported that two DNA profiles from the rape kit had been obtained. One was E.W. and the other was a male. Both Dewey and Gerald Davis were excluded as the source of the male profile.
That same month, the convictions of both men were vacated. Gerald Davis and Dewey Davis were released on bond in March 1994.
Dewey Davis’s case was dismissed that year. Gerald Davis went to trial a second time in December 1995. The prosecution contended that he had raped E.W., but did not ejaculate. On December 4, 1995, a jury acquitted him of all charges.
In September 1997, Dewey and Gerald Davis filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. The lawsuit was dismissed after they were awarded compensation from the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management in 1998. Dewey Davis was awarded $750,000 and Gerald Davis was awarded $500,000. Gerald Davis died in 2013. He was 55 years old.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 01-26-2026
