TALE OF INTRIGUE STRANGER THAN FICTION

True-Crime Author Caught Up In Web Of Mysterious Circumstances

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS -- A drug raid and fatal shooting at the home of
a true-crime author in this Fort Worth suburb have combined to reveal
a set of circumstances stranger than any book the author may have penned.

Now, as facts of the case begin to surface, a long-simmering family
feud, replete with accusations of murder and intrigue, has come to
light.

The raid occurred Dec. 15 at the home of Barbara Davis, 50, author of
several books, including Precious Angels, an accounting of the 1997
Darlie Routier capital murder trial.

Around midmorning on that date, 17 police officers armed with a
"no-knock" warrant based on a statement from an informer converged on
the Davis home, broke down the door and confronted Troy James Davis,
the author's 25-year-old son, as he was preparing breakfast.

Police said their informant had described Troy Davis as a dangerous
person who was growing a "substantial" amount of marijuana in the home
and often answered the door armed with a pistol loaded with
Teflon-coated bullets.

When the officers broke down the door to the home, they said, Troy
Davis pointed a 9mm pistol at them and North Richland Hills Patrolman
Allen Hill shot Davis twice with a .45-caliber automatic, wounding him
fatally.

Barbara Davis, who was asleep in a back bedroom when the raid began,
was arrested and charged with possession of three, small marijuana
plants, found in a garden behind the home, and several ounces of GHB
(a so-called "date rape" drug).

Barbara Davis, freed on bond, denied the accusations, saying she had
no knowledge of the marijuana and had legally purchased the GHB as a
treatment for insomnia before it became illegal in November.

She subsequently filed a wrongful death suit against the city and its
police department, Hill was put on paid leave pending an investigation
and city officials quickly began withholding comment on the incident.

And the public airing of the story might have ended there, had it not
been for Davis' involvement in the Routier case. That case, in which
Darlie Routier was accused of the murder of her two young sons in
Rowlett and eventually convicted, was surrounded by strange
circumstance, though no more bizarre than those surrounding Davis.

Davis already had a small following based on her books. Her first work
dealt with a stalking case and was moderately successful. Her second,
on the Routier case, took the position that Routier was guilty and had
only begun to sell when Davis had a change of heart.

Last year, Davis renounced her own book, became a staunch apologist
for Routier and began appearing on television and radio talk shows,
appealing for a new trial for Routier. She said evidence she was
unaware of during the trial had convinced her that Routier was
innocent. She said she had vowed to devote herself to Routier's
acquittal, had turned down other book contracts, taken a job in a
hospital and was living on a restricted budget until Routier could be
freed.

And that move brought her more ardent fans than had any of her
books.

Davis became the darling of Routier supporters, many of whom are
organized around a Web site for Darlie Routier. When the police raid
occurred at the Davis home, those supporters began speculating, in
private and in "chat rooms" on the Internet, that Davis was the target
of police efforts to discredit her.

Part of this discussion revolved around threatening e-mail messages
that Davis had received just before the raid. One of those, referring
to her tight budget, advised her that "if you're so strapped for cash,
why don't you sell some of that marijuana you have growing in the back
bedroom."

That message fueled speculation that Davis had been targeted, even
framed, and self-styled "Web sleuths" began attempting to track its
origin. They correctly traced it to Waxahachie and incorrectly
identified its origin as the Waxahachie Police Department, and,
specifically, Police Chief Allwin Barrow.

Rumors then began circulating that Barrow had sent the
message.

"It was an unbelievable mix-up and it uncovered a bizarre set of
circumstances," said Barrow, who did not know Barbara Davis. Barrow's
department began its own investigation and traced the message to a
Waxahachie woman, a sister-in-law of Barbara's husband, James Davis.
James Davis died of heart failure in 1995.

Police said the woman, who refused comment when contacted last week,
admitted sending the message. Then, she and other Davis family members
told investigators they suspected Barbara Davis of poisoning her
husband, causing him to have a fatal heart attack in September 1995.

Moreover, investigators learned that the confidential informant whose
statements led North Richland Hills police to the Davis home was none
other than Davis' nephew.

Bob Davis of Fort Worth, Barbara Davis' brother-in-law, said animosity
toward the author stemmed, in part, from a Sept. 23, 1982, shooting in
which Barbara Davis wounded her late husband outside a convenience
store in North Richland Hills.

The shooting reportedly resulted from a disagreement that began at the
couple's home. Barbara Davis had later driven to the convenience
store, followed by her husband, and shot him when he approached her
vehicle.

"She shot him several times and hit him in the stomach and left leg,"
said Bob Davis. "He spent a week in the hospital and recovered and
went right back to her."

James Davis never filed a criminal complaint over the shooting and
police apparently did not pursue the case. Barbara Davis, who worked
as a clerk for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office at the
time and, later, for a district judge, subsequently had police records
of the case legally expunged.

The hospital where James Davis recuperated has since
closed.

Davis family members and others, however, confirmed the incident and
an entry in the diary of James Davis' father, the late James Howard
Davis Sr., refers to the shooting.

Shortly after James' death in 1995, Bob Davis said he and others in
the family began to suspect Barbara had caused his heart attack.

"My father (owner of a cemetery and funeral home) had left quite a bit
of money," said Bob Davis. "My brother, Jim, inherited around
$300,000, but he put it in a mutual fund where she (Barbara Davis)
couldn't get it.

"Then, leading up to his death, Jim had three heart attacks, all at 2
a.m. and that seemed strange and we began to wonder if she'd given him
something.

"I went to the (Tarrant County) Sheriff's Department and talked to an
officer there about it, but we had no proof and he told me she'd
probably sue me if we had my brother's body exhumed and that I'd best
forget about it," said Bob Davis.

After James Davis' death, animosity between his widow and his family
began to grow. Approximately a year after her husband's death, Barbara
Davis had a cemetery monument erected for a man who had died whom she
identified as one of her husband's best friends. The monument was
erected near her husband's grave in the Davis family plot.

That angered members of the Davis family, who said they had never
heard of him and demanded Barbara Davis remove the marker. She refused
and Bob Davis eventually used a tractor to haul the marble plaque away.

Then, on Dec. 14, Chris Davis, Barbara Davis' nephew, told police his
aunt and cousin had been using drugs for years and recently had begun
preparing to grow marijuana and manufacture and distribute GHB. He
also said Troy Davis often answered the door, armed with a pistol
loaded with armor-piercing bullets.

During the raid, police said that, in addition to the marijuana and
GHB, they found pamphlets on growing marijuana, a pamphlet describing
the manufacture of GHB, numerous weapons and a closet, outfitted to
grow marijuana with artificial light.

Police conduct of the raid, however, has come into
question.

Barbara Davis declined comment. Her civil attorney, Tom Carse,
however, confirmed the facts surrounding the threatening message, the
warrant and the family's suspicions about the death of James Davis.

"This is just unbelievable," said Carse. "That they (Davis' relatives)
could think that she did something like that with no indication that
it ever happened.

"I mean, the man died of a heart attack. It's on the death
certificate."

Carse also cited the record of Hill, the patrolman who shot Troy
Davis. North Richland Hills records show that Hill was suspended
without pay last June after it was learned that he had exposed himself
in group photos of the department's SWAT team taken during training
exercises at Fort Hood last November.

A report on the incident states that "during one of the photographs,
Officer Allen Hill exposed his genitalia without the knowledge of the
other tactical team members."

"The act was committed in presence of mixed gender company, however,
the act should not have occurred whether female members were present
or not."

Hill also has a sexual harassment complaint from a female officer
pending against him.

"It concerns me that the North Richland Hills Police Department is
aware of character flaws in an officer they put on the SWAT team,"
said Carse.

"I mean, they had a guy who didn't have the mental capacity to observe
normal codes of decency. The facts around this thing sound like they
belong to a bad fraternity prank," he said.

"As it is, they belong to a tragedy."