Man indicted in 1998 slaying of homeless person

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

A 41-year-old man who allegedly confessed to traveling the country preying on homeless people in order to reach his goal of landing on death row was indicted last week in connection with the 1998 slaying of a North Las Vegas homeless man.

Prosecutors said they will be reviewing the case to determine if they will seek the death penalty for Robert Neal Davis.

Davis allegedly told authorities he shot and wounded two homeless men in Las Vegas and New York and planned to target another transient in Washington, D.C., and that he "knows killing is wrong, but does not feel any remorse," the arrest affidavit says.

A Clark County grand jury heard the case Oct. 7 and handed down an indictment for murder with a deadly weapon the next day.

A source close to the investigation who asked not to be named said Davis appeared very rational during the videotaped confession and was able to recite minute details of each of his alleged crimes.

He told authorities that he saw his father kill a man in front of him when he was five years old and that he has headaches that somehow compelled him to harm people, the source said.

Deputy District Attorney David Stanton said this case "will be presented to the death penalty review committee and a decision will be made" whether that penalty will be sought.

Last year, while serving a nine-year prison sentence for attempted murder in New York, Davis allegedly admitted to authorities that he also shot two transients in the Las Vegas area.

In 1998 Davis hopped a bus in Los Angeles bound for Las Vegas to get away from a warrant charging him with a drug offense, authorities allege. Davis, who was homeless when the crimes were committed, joined other homeless people who slept near railroad tracks in North Las Vegas.

Davis told police that on May 30, 1998, he shot transient Henry Bennett five times in a dispute over a portable television near the Salvation Army shelter in Las Vegas.

Bennett survived and is serving a prison sentence of 10 to 25 years because he was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in 2000, court records show.

About a month later, on July 4, 1998, Davis allegedly waited until fireworks started then spotted 41-year-old Billy Ray Owens asleep near the railroad tracks in North Las Vegas. Davis allegedly told police he shot Owens three times in the back.

After that he jumped back on a bus and drifted through various places including Los Angeles, Arizona and Mississippi.

Davis ended up in Washington, D.C., where he turned himself in to police, saying he had shot someone in Elmira, N.Y., police said. He allegedly told police he had run out of money and had no bullets left, so he surrendered.

In February, North Las Vegas Police detective David Molnar went to New York to interview Davis. North Las Vegas Police filed an arrest warrant against him in May 2003, and he was extradited to Nevada last month.

Davis confessed his crimes to police "so it would help him get the death penalty," the affidavit says.

He said he spoke to other inmates about what it would take for him to get sentenced to death, the affidavit says, and he determined if he killed five people brutally enough he would be sentenced to death.

He told police he selected transients "because there are so many and there is no family involvement."