

In previous court testimony, Cron said that Melanie Davis cut off ties with her after the death of Zach’s father and after the family moved to Hendersonville from Kentucky.

He’s a child who made a horrible mistake.”
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“Every teacher, every guidance counselor should have to stand trial with Zach,” she said. She said that if her grandson, whose father died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when Zach was 9, been given proper mental health treatment, “this would not have happened.” It’s that plain and simple.”Įarlier in the sentencing hearing, Zachary Davis’ paternal grandmother, Gail Cron, asked for leniency and mercy.
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Other evidence, according to the judge, included two phone apps the teen had – one having to do with serial killers and the other listing torture devices a notebook with such quotes as “you can’t spell laughter without slaughter ” and his statement to police that “I didn’t feel anything when I killed her.” “The thing that bothers me is that you have shown no regrets, no remorse, in murdering your own mother at age 15,” the judge said. Gay directed most of his comments to Zachary Davis himself, who sat still and showed little emotion. Phil interview in court on Friday, had a different take on Zachary Davis’ mental state.Īlthough several mental health experts who testified during the teen’s trial and competency hearing disagreed on a diagnosis, they did agree that he wasn’t legally insane, in that he knew right from wrong, Gay said. “When I look in your eyes, I don’t see evil, I see lost,” he said.īut the judge, who watched the Dr. When asked why he struck her nearly 20 times, he said in his usual flat, monotone voice that he “wanted to make sure she was dead.”ĭavis’ exaggerated head nods and laughing at inappropriate times were “common behaviors for disorders ranging from severe anxiety to schizophrenia,” said McGraw. In that interview, conducted two months before his trial, Davis detailed killing his mother, Melanie Davis, with a sledgehammer. Phil McGraw aired a jailhouse interview with the teen on May 22.

Zachary Davis’ case garnered national attention when television show personality Dr.

In Tennessee, a life sentence is 60 years with eligibility for parole after 51 years. However, the judge ruled that those sentences should be served consecutive, or after, the life sentence. Gay ordered that those sentences be served concurrently, or at the same time. The range for each charge was 15 to 25 years. On Friday, June 5, Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay sentenced Zachary Davis to 20 years each for the additional charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson for also setting his house on fire while his older brother slept. Zachary Davis 2023 Information Zachary Davis Teen Killer Murders MotherĬurrent Facility – Special Needs Facility –Ī Hendersonville teen convicted in April of first-degree murder in the 2012 bludgeoning death of his mother will spend at least 71 years in prison.ĭavis, 17, received an automatic life sentence for first-degree murder following a four-day trial in April.
