Woman Convicted in Stabbing Death of Boyfriend

Jury rejects Davis’ claim of battered woman’s syndrome, finds her guilty of manslaughter in Uniondale killing

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a jury has rejected the self-defense claims of a Uniondale woman and convicted the 27-year-old of fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend last January. In finding the woman guilty of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree and Menacing in the Second Degree, the jury unanimously rejected the defendant’s claims that alleged prior physical abuse provided justification for the killing. The defense is commonly referred to as battered woman’s syndrome.

The 13-day trial concluded with six hours of deliberation.  Davis is scheduled to be sentenced January 15.

Rice said that at around 11:30 p.m. on January 22, 2008, Jennifer Davis and her live-in boyfriend, 20-year-old Mickell Gibson, became involved in a verbal dispute in the couple’s Uniondale apartment. Davis alleged that Gibson struck her in the foot during the argument.  Davis ran to the bedroom of her 8-year-old daughter, where she retrieved a steak knife from underneath her daughter’s mattress. She returned to confront Gibson in the apartment’s kitchen, where she stabbed him once through the heart.

Rice said that Davis originally told police that Gibson had attacked her with a knife, and that he was stabbed as they both struggled for control of the knife. Eventually, Davis’ story changed, and she admitted attacking Gibson, even telling detectives that her boyfriend had recently been forced to hide the couple’s kitchen knives following arguments in which she threatened Gibson with the knives.

“This was a brutal and unprovoked killing,” said Rice. “There was no justification and there is no defense for what happened.”

Assistant District Attorney Joseph LaRocca of the DA’s County Court Trial Bureau is handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office. Davis is being represented by Frederick Brewington, Esq.