GALLATIN, TN (WSMV) -
A Hendersonville teenager accused of bludgeoning his mother to death last month will be tried as an adult.
A judge made the decision at a hearing Tuesday in Gallatin.
The attorney for 15-year-old Zachery Davis wanted the teen tried as a juvenile, but the judge said this was a savage crime and in his 26 years on the bench he has never seen a case of this magnitude.
He added the teen has emotional and mental problems, but he said Davis knew what he was doing the night his mother was killed. The judge concluded it's in the best interest of the community that Davis be tried as an adult.
According to the affidavit, Davis murdered his mother with a sledgehammer while she was sleeping. Police said he then locked her door and started a fire at their Hendersonville home with his 16-year-old brother still inside.
Davis was later located by investigators who said he had a letter on him where he confessed to killing his mother and leaving his brother to burn in the fire that he had started.
Davis' mother, Melanie Davis, 46, was a single mom to the two teenage boys. Her oldest son has been orphaned by the murder while her youngest could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted.
The judge ruled that even though Zachery Davis will be tried as an adult he will still be held at a juvenile detention center in Murfreesboro. But, he will be held without bond.
The teen had no prior criminal history.
Zachery Davis' defense attorney, Randy Lucas, released this statement Tuesday:
"The murder of Melanie Davis is an unimaginable personal tragedy for all who knew and loved her and the brutality of the crime touches every one of us on a human level.
As devastating as is the senseless loss of a life, this case is even more tragic for the simple fact that Zack is also a victim here. After Zack Davis' father died, in his presence, of a degenerative illness, being moved and isolated from extended family, Zack sent up every possible red flag a 9-year-old is able to articulate that he was depressed, disturbed and sliding into a chasm of despair and frustration.
And yet, he was failed at every turn by the school system, the child welfare system, the family and society. Any one person that encountered Zack - teachers, neighbors, immediate family - knew ‘something' was deeply wrong. His school knew. His mother knew. But nothing was done. Now, transferred to the adult criminal justice system, he will get nothing in the way of rehabilitation, medication or counseling. Zack Davis is truly lost in the system. At age - barely - 15.
We need to ask ourselves as a society if this is the way we want to handle troubled youthful offenders, and we most certainly need to work with schools to better identify troubled children who are crying out for someone to hear them."
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