Normal being turning into murders, why?

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The jury of six men and six women reached the verdict after more than 21 hours of deliberations.

Jurors found Cutts guilty of aggravated murder for the unlawful termination of Davis' pregnancy and the aggravated murder of a child under the age of 13.

But the jury found him guilty of a lesser murder count in the death of Davis.

Davis was nine months pregnant when she disappeared. She had chosen the name Chloe for her daughter.

Jurors found that baby Chloe was killed during the commission of another crime, making Cutts eligible for the death penalty.

The penalty phase of the trial is set to begin February 25. Cutts will face a sentence of either 25 years to life with the possibility of parole, 30 years to life with the possibility of parole, life without parole or death.

As the verdicts were read, Cutts remained stoic, a stark contrast to his tearful testimony on Monday. Watch the verdicts

His and Davis' families left the courthouse without comment.

Jurors began deliberations late Tuesday afternoon. They had been sequestered, spending nights at a nearby hotel, cut off from exposure to the media and other potential influences.

According to testimony, Cutts, 30, rolled Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving their 2-year-old son, Blake, alone.

Cutts also was found guilty of aggravated burglary, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse and endangering a child, Blake.

Cutts sobbed on the witness stand as he admitted killing Davis and their unborn child. But Cutts insisted that their deaths were an accident.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Cutts testified, clasping a handful of tissues. "This isn't real," he said he kept telling himself.

Prosecutors discounted Cutts' story, claiming he buckled under the financial pressure of child support, killed the mother of his child and then created a cover story to try to get away with it.

On the stand, Cutts said he went to pick up his son Blake and became agitated when Davis, 26, wasn't moving fast enough to get the boy ready. He said he tried to leave her house but she grabbed him to keep him from leaving, and he accidentally elbowed her in the throat.

Cutts told the jury he performed CPR on Davis and then tried to revive her with bleach. When he realized Davis was dead, Cutts said he panicked and put her in the back of his truck, so Blake wouldn't have to see his mother.

Myisha Ferrell, Cutts' longtime friend, testified for the prosecution that Cutts appeared at her home at 6 a.m. after Davis died.

She said she could tell he was distraught. When they left her home in his truck, she found out why.

"We drove off and he said something was wrong," she said. "He said, 'Something bad.' "

"He said something was wrong with his baby's mother."

Ferrell told the jury Cutts started speaking erratically as they drove, then blurted out, "She's in the back."

Ferrell admitted she helped dump Davis' body in a field and said Cutts later coached her on what to say to police.

Ferrell was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to authorities and complicity to gross abuse of a corpse.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Dennis Barr said Cutts strangled and killed Davis and her unborn child because of his mounting debt and child support for what would have been his fourth child.

Cutts' own actions following Davis' disappearance were a clear indications of his guilt, he said.

"His reaction is the reaction of person who committed a crime and is trying to cover it up," Barr said.

Davis disappeared in June and the search for her attracted national attention. At that time, Cutts repeatedly denied he had any involvement. But Cutts eventually led police to her body.

"For nine days he kept the location of [Davis' body] a secret and went on about his life, every day knowing that Jessie and Chloe were laying there rotting away, destroying the evidence," Barr said.

Prosecutors also reminded the jury of the testimony of one of Cutts' friends, Richard Mitchell, who claimed the former police officer threatened to kill Davis one month before she disappeared.

"I'm going to kill that [expletive] and throw her in the woods," Mitchell quoted Cutts as saying.

In their closings, Cutts' attorneys acknowledged their client's poor judgment after Davis' death, but said the prosecution had not presented any witnesses to support their claim that Cutts was in financial distress.

They urged the jury to find Cutts not guilty on the basis that the prosecution did not prove their case that he intentionally killed Davis.

Fernando Mack, a defense lawyer, admitted Cutts' judgment lapsed when he wrapped Davis' body up and went to dispose of it, leaving their toddler alone with the bleach-soaked rug.

But he cautioned jurors against deciding Cutts' fate based on an emotional response to ugly facts. "Will it outrage you? Absolutely. But, Blake being left home alone doesn't tell you about aggravated murder."

"You don't know what happened in that house," defense attorney Carolyn Ranke said.

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humans r complex creatures. there r always so many exceptions to a general rulethat it's hard to consider all different aspects which can give rise to a certain behavior whether good or bad. whole bunch of permutation combinations of circumstances, mental balance, mental make up, environment, family background etc that may result in an all together different reactions from different (or at times the same) individual when faced with similar circumstances!!!

I feel the bottomline is how we think. how positive or negative or vindictive we r. optimistic people who have a positive outlook will react in a manner that is not harmful/hurtful to others around them as compared to a pessimist who is also full of negativity and is vindictive. That's why they say ki achha achha socho jis sey achhey karam karo 😊

Frankly, don't know what else to write here.

Sorry have no idea on what goes on in the mind of a killer, but have patience, if and when that happens and if they let me have internet access. I will give you a ankho-dekha haal😆

On a side note

Amazing how the system works here
Aggravated assault on his wife - not guilty
Aggravated assault on an unborn - guilty

I think the jury convicted him of everything except for that first charge. Amazing how the jury was able to look beyond all the crap and zero in on certain indisputable facts and nail him on that and vacate him on something that they were not sure of 👏 👏

Originally posted by: sareg

Sorry have no idea on what goes on in the mind of a killer, but have patience, if and when that happens and if they let me have internet access. I will give you a ankho-dekha haal😆

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😆😆😆 hope it never happens vinit. really hope u never come face to face with one of us...ur arch debate rivals😆😆😆

I haven't read the whole article, but yes, i will say, that, if a nice human being suddenly changes into a criminal, it means that there DEFINITELY is reason behind this.

A good person can never becum a murderer suddenly. I think it happens when people suffers to an EXTENT that they can't control themself. 😛 And turns out to be one murderer... 😉

Originally posted by: raj5000

The current Deklab school shooting (link)and this story below, is so upsetting and sad. Understand that guy involved in school killing had a mental problem, but doesn't warrants anyone to go ahead and shoot on innocent people around...why such individuals are left open?

Then again comes this ex cop who was normal and see the maniac act... cann't understand what makes a perfectly normal being do something sooo out of the world? Can we even call him normal ? OR Can we call oursleves murders circumstances based? What was going in his mind, come on forget killing does one ever even feel like hurting a p women, think about that 2 year old? Wonder what goes on such individuals.... prayers - may souls of those who departed RIP...and courage to families impacted with these latest happening.

I've got to agree with Gauri...humans are complex creatures and it's hard to say why things like these happen. But this thread kinda reminds me of a discussion on one of the other threads some time ago about whether you can force someone with psychiatric problems to get medical help. I think sometimes some of these murderers are sad, troubled individuals who desperately needed to get medical/psychiatric help but never sought the help and never got the help. Perhaps if getting psychiatric help didnt have so much social stigma attached to it, or were cheaper and much more affordable and readily available, these troubled individuals wouldnt get to that point. At other times, the solution isnt always so simple...perfectly normal individuals turn into murderers out of the sheer helplessness they feel in a particular situation...it's all really complicated, and it's hard to understand what was ticking in their heads at that moment.

There is no justification for murder. Period.

At the same time we have to focus on what drives seemingly normal peaceful people over the edge into such acts of violence. We need to understand why over the past decade violent shootings and incidents have become more common.

In my opinion there is a limit to how much the human mind can handle. Our lives have become more competitive, much more stressful, much more challenging. While most individuals learn to cope, there definitely will be a group of people whose psychology was not designed to handled this. The difficult question to answer is, is it their fault for not having the mental strength to cope, or is it our fault for throwing such people in a vulnerable world.

Another factor that I believe to contribute to such incidents is the deteriorating quality of social interaction. From what I see of my parents generation and our generation, their generation had a lot more close interaction with friends and family. They spent a good amount of time with parents, friends, siblings, they hung out with their groups of friends in real life. Even the shy introverted and anti-social got integrated into the family or friends circle. Nowadays with busy lives, people on the move, real interaction is replaced with virtual interaction. Even with friends and family we spend less time with them and more time exchanging emails or phone calls. In this situation only social people manage to make friends and have a network wherever they go. The introverted kind become constantly left out. They never get a chance to be integrated into any family or friend social circle.

If you read the stories of all the shootings over the past decades - most of these kids were shy introverted, they kept to themselves or a small group , they were considered outsiders, many of them were even ignored by their busy families and expected to hold out. What society really needs to do is enhance the level of social interaction.

The internet has also shaped our lives a lot. The world is at our fingertips. While it can be a positive channel to make friends, learn about cultures, seek out knowledge and information, the lack of structure makes it a vulnerable medium too. Kids a decade ago did not have such instantaneous access to so many different people, scarier still access to violence, po*nography etc at the click of a button.

Back in the days bullying threats were public. Kids would shout insults beat each other up. No experience was really private. Although there is a lot more privacy nowadays it is not always a good thing. People get coerced by sexual predators, insulted and abused online. Many are scared and embarrassed and do not share the trauma. Back in the day parents could watch who kids were friends with, now kids can be talking to anyone online and parents will never know who they are.

It is hardly surprising that with kids being so much more vulnerable, exposed and socially cut off there will be a larger amount of them snapping and turning to violence and eccentricities eventually.

👏 people responding here Sareg, Gauri, StrangeMirror and great views RTH...

I know comple creature...but whatever bad or worst happens ...again and again..never can imagine such actions... well as in past people said sue to ozone effect / lack of social interaction people tend to go hay way...never thought about it..but now it's making sense... if living in happy contended surroundings people won't turn minacs for no reason.