Defense motion rejected in Ohio slaying

A judge on Friday rejected a motion that accused prosecutors of withholding evidence in the case of a former police officer accused in the death of his pregnant girlfriend.

Defense lawyers for Bobby Cutts Jr. charged that prosecutors were trying to influence potential jurors and the community with wrong information in the highly publicized case, scheduled to go to trial Jan 23.

If prosecutors have evidence of the alleged admission, they must turn it over, the defense wrote in its motion.

But Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. overruled the motion during a half-hour hearing.

Cutts, 30, is charged with multiple counts of murder, burglary, gross abuse of a corpse and endangering children in the death of Jessie Davis, 26, whose body was found a week after she vanished from her home in June. Cutts could face the death penalty if convicted.

Defense attorneys contended Cutts never told his high school classmate that he killed Davis and her unborn daughter. The classmate, Myisha Ferrell, pleaded guilty in November to obstructing justice and complicity to gross abuse of a corpse, and has agreed to testify at Cutts' trial.

Prosecutors deny withholding evidence or misleading the public. A gag order imposed by the judge prohibits lawyers from commenting on the case other than at court hearings or in motions.

Telephone calls to Cutts' attorneys, Fernando Mack and Myron Watson, were not immediately returned Friday.

Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, found her 2 1/2-year-old grandson alone June 15 in Davis' home in Lake Township, near North Canton. The boy, Blake, provided authorities with the first clues, saying: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug."

After a heavily publicized search, Davis' body was found June 23 in a park about 20 miles away. Her pregnancy was nearly at full term.

Cutts is the father of Blake and Davis' family has said Cutts also was the father of her unborn daughter. He resigned as a Canton patrolman after his arrest.