Serial Vacaville rapist dies in prison

Victor Davis

FAIRFIELD — A serial rapist who attacked and terrorized several Vacaville women between 2004 and 2007 is dead.

Victor L. Davis died in his prison cell last week at the Kern Valley State Prison in Delano. An autopsy conducted earlier this week did not determine a cause of death for Davis but a prison spokesman said Wednesday it appears that Davis, 31, died from alcohol poisoning.

Davis’ death came two weeks after he learned of the rejection of his final legal challenge to his 2009 conviction on 39 felony charges after a monthlong jury trial.

Earlier this month, Solano County Superior Court Judge Alesia Jones denied Davis’ writ of habeas corpus in which he claimed his rights were violated by an illegal search of his car that led to his 2007 arrest. The lengthy, meticulously handwritten writ was preceded by a similar legal effort rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 and by the State Court of Appeal and California Supreme Court, upholding his conviction and sentencing in 2011.

At the time of his death, Davis was serving six life sentences along with an additional sentence of 132 years and eight months for his crimes.

Davis committed a series of late-night attacks, breaking into the homes of several women who lived alone or with young children. He favored preying on much older women. His last attack was on a pair of roommates. One of them managed to make a 911 call, telling a police dispatcher that her attacker may still be in her home. Police swarmed the house, but Davis escaped.

His car, parked about 50 yards from the home, was searched and Davis’ driver’s license was found. He was arrested several days later. Davis’ attorney, Lesli Caldwell, currently Solano County public defender, challenged the warrantless search before Davis’ trial. Judge Donna Stashyn ruled the search was improper but that the evidence uncovered by the search would have been discovered eventually, so the evidence was admitted for Davis’ trial.

During the trial, jurors heard from Davis’ 11 victims.

One woman, who was raped and assaulted in 2006, described being home alone and feeling as if someone was in her house. She went to bed, locking her bedroom door and jamming a chair under the door knob. The woman was awakened in the middle of the night by more odd noises in her sweltering hot bedroom. She went into her hallway where she was attacked. Police later found a variety of makeshift lock-picking tools on the hallway floor near the bedroom door and they noted that the heater thermostat in the home had been turned up to 90 degrees.

The deputy district attorney who successfully led the prosecution against Davis, Krishna Abrams, declined  comment on his death.

Word of Davis’ death was delayed because authorities had difficulty locating his next of kin. Davis’ father, Victor S. Davis, is also serving a life sentence for the 2001 murders of a girlfriend and her disabled adult daughter in a scheme to collect more than $900,000 in life insurance money.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.

Victor Davis

Jess Sullivan

Jess has covered the criminal justice system in Solano County for several years. He was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2003.

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