Editor’s note: On this week’s Between the Headlines podcast, hosts Zack Plair and David Chism interviewed Trina Davidson, assistant district attorney for the 16th Circuit and lead prosecutor in the case against Daricka Moore, a 24-year-old charged with killing six people and harming two others Jan. 9 in Cedarbluff. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented the release of the episode, so The Dispatch is publishing a report in print on the interview.
Trina Davidson was at home with her children when investigators called about a shooting spree Jan. 9 that left six people, including a 7-year-old child, dead in Cedarbluff.
“When I first got the telephone call from one of the investigators … my first response was, ‘You’re kidding, right?’” Davidson said Thursday on the Between the Headlines podcast at Catfish Alley Studio. “… And at that moment … once they told me some of the details, I went into shock. I didn’t really have a whole bunch of words, and going through my mind, I was like, ‘No. Not West Point.’”
Davidson, assistant district attorney for the 16th Circuit and Clay County native, took over as lead prosecutor for the case once Daricka Moore, 24, was apprehended that night. Since then, Davidson said she has received a flood of questions about why the case hasn’t already moved faster, and why the suspect was allowed to plead guilty during his initial court appearance on Monday in Clay County Circuit Court.
“I’ve had several individuals … (say) ‘We want justice now,’” Davidson said. “‘This person doesn’t need to go to trial. They need to be punished right now.’ And my response to them is that there is a process. The process doesn’t change because there were multiple people who were killed. We can’t violate (Moore’s) constitutional rights. … If we don’t follow the process and then we end up in trial, it could get reversed, and we have to start all the way back over again.”
Moore is charged with three counts of capital murder in the deaths of his second cousin, 7-year-old Mikylia Guines, and family friends Barry Bradley and Samuel Bradley. He also faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his father, Glenn Moore, 67; his brother, Quinten Moore, 33; and his uncle, Willie Ed Guines, 55. He faces additional counts of attempted capital murder, attempted sexual battery, burglary of a dwelling and two counts of motor vehicle theft.
During a press conference held Jan. 10, District Attorney Scott Colom said his office intends to seek the death penalty due to the severity of the crimes. Under Mississippi law, Davidson said Moore’s alleged actions met several of the criteria for capital murder offenses, including killing three or more people in one criminal episode, killing someone while attempting to commit a felony and committing a felonious act on a child, during which the child dies.
Based on those statutes, prosecutors determined the charges, and the death penalty, were legally appropriate.
Even so, Davidson said several steps must occur first, including completion of the investigation, a court-ordered mental evaluation and indictment by a grand jury.
Moore will undergo a mental evaluation at the Mississippi State Hospital where medical professionals will assess if he is competent to stand trial, meaning he can understand the proceedings and assist his attorney, and whether he was legally insane at the time of the alleged crimes, which is evaluated under an 1843 English legal standard adopted by Mississippi, Davidson said.
“It is a high burden,” she said. “Essentially, it will determine whether or not the defendant could appreciate or understand his acts when he was committing the acts and … basically, did he know what he did was wrong?”
If Moore is found incompetent to stand trial, Davdison said medical professionals will likely recommend additional treatment at the state hospital to see if he can be restored to competency.
The results of the evaluation will also factor into whether the state ultimately seeks the death penalty, as will the family’s wishes.
“We will meet with the family and see what their feelings or recommendations are going forward on the case, even though the ultimate decision is always with the district attorney,” Davidson said. “… But this is so early in the stages that there’s a whole process that we have to go through before we can have that final conversation about the death penalty.”
As the investigation continues and the case waits for the next grand jury session, which is held twice a year in April and October in Clay County, Davidson said her office is focused on keeping the victims’ families informed and supported.
“In every case that I have involving a murder, emotions are always high,” she said. “Families are in pain. They’re grieving, … but once we sit down with them and we talk to them and say, ‘I know how you feel. I understand what you’re going through, but let me show you what we do and how the process works.’ After we tell them that, they start to feel a little bit better. They may not like the process, but they understand and appreciate what we do and what we have to do to get to the end.”
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