A Hot Springs attorney and her brother each appeared by video in Garland County District Court on Friday after surrendering in a manslaughter case.
Innocent pleas were entered for Andrea Davis and her brother Matthew Davis in the Feb. 29, 2012, shooting death of Maxwell Anderson at Andrea Davis' Hot Springs home. A judge also set bail for Andrea Davis at $75,000 and Matthew Davis at $25,000.
Andrea Davis' bail covers the manslaughter case as well as other unrelated burglary and theft charges in a pair of other cases.
Andrea Davis was also sentenced to 15 days in jail and $2,000 in fines on five previous convictions for contempt of court, which stemmed from her missing court on the day Attorney General Dustin McDaniel publicly admitted an inappropriate relationship with her. McDaniel, then considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, later dropped out of the race over the issue.
Her attorney indicated she would immediately appeal.
Attorneys for both Davises spent several minutes in the nearby Garland County jail after the hearing and said upon leaving that they expected their clients would post bail and be released at some point Friday.
Garland County sheriff's office online records show 32-year-old Matthew Davis had been booked into jail about 4 a.m. Friday. His surrender came less than a day after Andrea Davis, 36, turned herself in.
Arrest affidavits show Anderson had agreed to provide the Davises $1,200 worth of methamphetamine and that his fatal shooting by Matthew Davis "was the result of a drug transaction gone bad," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Thursday.
Speaking after the hearing, Matthew Davis' attorney, Bill James, called it a "strong self-defense case." And Andrea Davis' attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said her charges were of an "unusual nature" and that he expected she would be found innocent.
"They're really a stretch," he said, noting the burglary and theft charges were filed based on Andrea Davis' DNA being in a house where she regularly visited. "And then with regard to the homicide charges involving the death of Mr. Anderson, the fact is the evidence clearly supports a self-defense issue and the evidence is also of course that Andi Davis was not the person who fired the shot. And there's some I think significant legal question as to whether you can be an accomplice to a negligent act."
Rosenzweig had sought a $25,000 bail for Andrea Davis, noting she is not a flight risk because she lives in Hot Springs and has family, including two young children, in the area.
"She has no place else to go," Rosenzweig said in court, though District Judge David Switzer ultimately ordered the higher bail.
Matthew Davis will be allowed to return to his residence in California pending trial, but he was ordered to surrender his passport and had to sign an extradition waiver as part of his bail conditions.
After setting the bail, Andrea Davis waived her right to be sentenced in person on five misdemeanor convictions of contempt of court and that proceeding was also conducted by video.
Switzer admonished her for her actions that day.
"I'm really disappointed with having to do this," he told her just after handing down the sentence. "All these years on the bench and you're the first lawyer I've ever had to hold in contempt. I shouldn't have to be in that position. I find it distasteful for me to be in that position."
IN TODAY'S EDITIONS
- http://www.arkansas…">Lawyer's surrender lands her in lockup