In deal, man gets 20 years for baby's injuries, 2 Little Rock holdups

Brandon Deshon Davis, 23, of North Little Rock
Brandon Deshon Davis, 23, of North Little Rock

A 23-year-old North Little Rock man who authorities say inflicted brain-damaging and bone-breaking injuries on his infant son accepted a 20-year prison sentence Thursday for the baby's injuries plus the armed robberies of a coffee shop and a restaurant.

Brandon Deshon Davis pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery and no contest to first-degree battery in exchange for the prison sentence. Under the terms of the plea agreement negotiated by Davis' attorney, Julie Jackson, Davis will have to serve 14 years before he can qualify for parole.

After sentencing, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen told Davis that he wanted the defendant to use his prison time to reflect on how he had hurt so many people, including family members who cared for him.

"I hope you take some time to learn how to treat people better than the way you have treated your family and your victims," he said.

Deputy prosecutor Barbara Mariani told the judge that baby Brycen Davis' mother, Britney Nekole Jackson, 21, endorsed the plea agreement, which will keep Brandon Davis behind bars until he is almost 37 years old.

Mariani said Brycen was 3 months old when he was rushed by ambulance in January to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he was discovered to have a broken arm and leg as well as bleeding and swelling that caused brain damage.

At a September hearing, detective Brandon Eggerth testified that doctors in the hospital's intensive care unit initially feared the baby might not survive his injuries.

The detective said Brycen was unconscious and had blood in his right eye, bruising over both eyes, arms, his foot and the base of his neck.

Doctors told him the baby's brain was swelling and they expected he would suffer brain damage that would affect him for the rest of his life, Eggerth said at the time. Physicians also were concerned the damage could affect the baby's development but did not know to what extent, the detective said.

However the infant's injuries were inflicted, they would have been very painful and obvious to any observer, according to the doctors, Eggerth testified.

The detective said Brandon Davis had been watching the baby and the child's 1-year-old brother, Brayden, over a seven-hour period that night at the Days Inn at 3200 Bankhead Drive where the family lived and Britney Jackson worked as a front-desk clerk.

About an hour after Jackson had finished her shift around midnight Jan. 31, she discovered the baby acting strangely, his head drooping and his eyes rolling, Eggerth testified. The couple called 911 to get him to the hospital, he said.

Jackson told police the baby had been fine when she went to work about 3 p.m. and that Brandon Davis told her the older boy had hit the infant in the head with a toy wooden hammer.

The detective said that Davis repeated the story about the 1-year-old hitting Brycen with the hammer when questioned. Davis also told the detective that the baby seemed fine afterward, had gone to sleep around 5 p.m. and woke up at 11 p.m.

Davis also described the baby as a "sour patch" who cries very loudly, Eggerth told the judge.

Davis was arrested that same day. At the time, he was awaiting trial on the two armed-robbery charges related to a pair of July 2016 holdups in west Little Rock.

Davis robbed the clerks at the Starbucks at 12901 Cantrell Road and the Wendy's at 17716 Cantrell Road with a pellet gun that looked real enough to scare his victims, the prosecutor said.

Police reports show the restaurants, which are about 3 miles apart, were held up about 22 minutes apart. Davis went through the Starbucks drive-thru and demanded money from Jeffrey Burnett, 27, but only got the contents of the tip jar because Burnett could not open the cash register.

Davis also used the Wendy's drive-thru, where he ordered a Sprite then demanded money from Brandon Garner, 24, who gave him some cash.

Davis was arrested three minutes after the Wendy's robbery by police who had been called to the area to investigate the Starbucks holdup. Officers found him in his 2013 Dodge Avenger in the parking lot of the Mexico Chiquito restaurant, and he subsequently confessed to the robberies.

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Metro on 12/01/2017

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