Post by maverick1862 on Aug 4, 2007 23:36:26 GMT -5
Davis' mother, son look to future
Aug. 4,2007
GREEN Knee-high and wide-eyed, a bright smile usually awakes in Patty Porter’s cozy but crowded, two-bedroom apartment. Every day since Blake Davis’ mother was killed, the 2-year-old makes Porter, his grandmother, smile.
Perhaps that is why Porter is able to deal with the twists of her daughter Jessie M. Davis’ murder investigation.
The Summit County medical examiner’s office phoned last week to update her on the findings of Davis’ autopsy. It was two days before the ruling — unspecified homicidal violence — was made public Wednesday. It neither irritated nor surprised Porter.
“It doesn’t change anything. She’s still gone,” Porter said. “Knowing won’t bring her back. We’ve had to learn a lot about what happens to a body when it’s left out like she was. ... Those people are doing their job. I’m doing my job, which is to care for Blake. Each person in this has their own job.”
Porter said she is unsure if the medical examiner knows more. She asked investigators to tell her only what she had to know.
“I’m afraid if I know more, I’ll say something that would jeopardize the case,” Porter said.
HARD TIMES
This has been the toughest summer in Porter’s 60 years. Before she buried her 26-year-old daughter and began raising Blake in June, her father died, she coped with the diagnosis that a grandchild will be born without an arm and a leg, worried about her 16-year-old son hospitalized with mononucleosis and put the pieces of a 25-year marriage behind her.
Despite that, Porter’s smile stands. On a wall in her apartment is a lifelike oil painting of her dead daughter.
“That’s my mommy,” Blake said, smiling.
The remains of Davis and her unborn daughter, to have been named Chloe, were found June 23. The man accused of killing them is Bobby L. Cutts Jr., the married boyfriend of Davis and father of their son Blake. Cutts sits in Stark County Jail on $5 million bond, charged with two counts of murder and waiting to find out if he will be indicted. The case is expected to go before a county grand jury, though the date is not made public.
Chloe’s middle name would have been Leann. She was named, in part, after Cutts. His middle name is Lee; Porter’s is Ann. Now, more than a name will tie them together forever.
A BUNDLE OF ENERGY
Blake laughs a lot. He tells Porter he is happy.
“When he would sleep in his mom’s bed, he would wake up in the morning, rub her face and say, ‘Good morning, sunshine!’ ” Porter said. “You can’t get up and look at him and feel sad. He is always smiling.”
Blake is a bundle of energy. During Porter’s two-hour interview, he manages to reach every part of the apartment, eventually sucking his thumb as his grandmother cradles him.
“He started calling me mom, and he goes between mom and grandma,” Porter said. “We’re just letting it go, because eventually he probably will call me mom because everybody else does. I felt like he needed a mom more now than a grandma, and he needs to feel like he’s part of the family.
“He’s an amazing little personality,” Porter says of Blake. “You can tell he thinks. He doesn’t just function.”
One morning, Blake woke up, came downstairs, then returned to bed, Porter said.
“I was like, ‘Oh, good, I have a few moments in the morning to myself,’ ” Porter said. “I wanted to make sure he wasn’t in someone’s makeup, so I crept back up the stairs.”
She paused to compose herself.
Blake was in bed, staring at a picture of his mother as he sucked his thumb.
“I know he misses his mother,” Porter said.
teaching compassion
In Porter’s home, family and friends are not allowed to speak ill of Cutts or cloud the mind of Blake, who may be the only witness to what happened to Jessie Davis.
Porter believes Blake knows what happened that night. She doesn’t want to influence Blake about his father. When Porter is asked if this is two heart-breaking stories — her loss of a daughter and grandchild and Blake’s loss of his mother — she corrects the question.
“It’s three heart-breaking stories,” she said. “Blake lost his dad as well. My job is to teach him to enjoy every day of his life and to teach him to be a child of love and compassion.
“However he feels about his father as he grows up will be more on Bobby and not on me. ... But if someone wants to speak ill of Bobby or gets frustrated, they can take it outside and beat on a tree.”
Porter has spent part of the last four years in counseling because of her divorce from Ned Davis. Her counselor has agreed to see all of her children, and Blake.
“He seems very well adjusted,” Porter said.
FAMILY RESEMBLENCE
Blake bears a striking resemblance to his father — a man described as charming and charismatic.
“When I went through the album, there were some beautiful pictures of him and Bobby together,” Porter said. “He does look like him, and he throws everything. So I wonder if he’s preparing to play football. I’m preparing for him to be a college graduate, so I don’t care much about football. He probably will have that natural (athletic) talent because my daughter was very athletic, too.”
Cutts played football at GlenOak High School and later at Walsh University. He spent a few years playing for area indoor football teams.
Jessie Davis attended one of those games, according to her sister Jane. Kelly Cutts, Bobby Cutts’ wife, was there, too.
“Jessie was with a friend of hers,” Jane Davis said, “and she told Jessie if (Bobby) was divorced like he said, his ‘ex-wife’ wouldn’t be at a game.”
Kelly Cutts’ attorney, Lorrie E. Fuchs, did not return a call seeking comment. Kelly filed for divorce two days after her husband was arrested.
prayers for cutts
The decomposed body of Jessie Davis was found in Summit County’s Hampton Hills Metro Park. Porter said the remains were in such a horrid condition that authorities wouldn’t allow the family to identify the body.
Despite that, Porter said she has forgiven the person responsible for her daughter’s death.
“It’s difficult, but ... I just shut off part of my mind,” Porter said. “I know during the trial I will be confronted with all that. For now, I choose to think my daughter is in heaven dancing around with (Chloe).
“(Blake) picks me up if I’m sad. So I choose each morning to get up and make it the best day I can for him, and for myself.”
For about three days, Porter didn’t believe Cutts could be involved. On June 16, she asked Cutts that question.
“I wanted him to scream at me, to yell at me and say, ‘No way! Are you crazy? There is no way I could do something like that,’ ” Porter said. “But all he said was, ‘No.’ ”
During the only interview Cutts granted, The Repository asked if he had anything to do with Jessie’s disappearance.
“No, I did not,” he said.
Porter prays for Cutts.
“I pray that somewhere, something good comes from this, because if Bobby Cutts were gone today, it wouldn’t bring my daughter back or that baby,” she said. “I just pray that sometime in his life, he really comes to know the Lord and is able to use his life, whatever period of time he has left, for something good.”
ANOTHER FAMILY
Porter and her daughter Jane Davis said Jessie didn’t know Cutts was married until after she was pregnant with Blake.
According to Jane, Jessie caught Cutts in a lie about his marriage. Jessie purposely left a shirt at the Cutts home, figuring Kelly would call Jessie once she found it.
Jane Davis said that Kelly Cutts did call Jessie after finding her shirt.
“Jessie was surprised,” Jane Davis said. “After she was pregnant with Blake, she found out that Bobby had another child. She called me and said, ‘You spend all this time with someone and you think you know them, and then you find out he has another child.’ ”
Porter declined to discuss the nature of Jessie’s relationship with Cutts.
“I don’t want to say anything that will come out at trial,” Porter said. “A lot of their relationship will come out.”
‘i miss mommy’
On a table in Patty’s living room is a book, “Choosing Forgiveness” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. The book tells how forgiveness frees people from hatred and anger.
Not everyone is ready to forgive. Whitney Davis, Jessie’s youngest sister, is one.
“My mom’s a lot nicer than I am, more trusting of people,” the 20-year-old said. “It’s frustrating because she’s forgiven him, and I’m not at that point.”
Davis paused.
“But you can be as mad as you want, and you can’t do anything about it,” she said.
Initially, the family told Blake that his mom and sister were with Jesus. Blake used an old cell phone to talk with his mother in heaven.
“He stopped asking where she was,” Porter said. “Now he just says, ‘I miss mommy.’