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Continued from Page 1. Neither Sanders nor Indepen dence Police Chief Fred Mills would say if the body was Ricci’s. At a news conference after the pair’s arraignment, however, Sanders said he expected Davis and Riley to face additional charges, which could include other slayings. Sanders also said his office was determining whether to seek the death penalty against the two, but cautioned “that process could take some time.” The couple wore bulletproof vests and were escorted into the courtroom by more than a dozen law enforcement offi cials, whom Sanders said were called in because of concerns events would turn violent. Riley began crying almost as soon as she sat down and sobbed, head bowed, through out the proceedings. Neither Davis nor Riley have “They deserve what they did to my mom to happen to them.” Betty Jean Spicer, ZTLe, wele Mercha Spicer on an attorney. Jackson County Circuit Judge Stephen Nixon ordered the two to be tried sepa rately — Davis is scheduled to appear in court again on July 12 and Riley on July 19. As she left the hearing, one of Riley’s relatives shouted, “We love you Dena,” but declined to comment afterward. Spicer’s family members were so shaken that several who spoke to reporters after the arraignment could not com plete their sentences, which were punctuated with out bursts of weeping. “They deserve what they did to my mom to happen to them,” said Spicer’s 19-year-old daugh ter, Betty Jean Spicer, who said she and her infant son visited with her mother days before she was killed. “I know that won't happen, though, so they deserve to die.” Spicer’s nephew Richard Cur tis described his aunt as a light hearted but fragile woman who had been scarred by witnessing the death of her mother as a child “Her mental capacity was not of a 40-year-old woman, it was of a teenager,” he said. “She wanted to be a good grandmoth er.” Spicer also had been trying unsuccessfully to get over a drug addiction, said her former boyfriend and landlord Willis Hunnicutt, who said he tried to protect her from bad influ ences. “If people would tell her they’d get her high she’d take off with them,” Hunnicutt said. “I seen the car that picked her up that night. I just had a funny feeling about it when she drove away.” Spicer went missing May 14. On May 22, prosecutors charged Davis and Riley, who lived together in Independence, with her murder. After eight days on the run, the two were arrested Thursday in Barton County in Southwest Missouri. Davis’ 5-year-old niece, allegedly taken from Crawford County, Kan., was with them when their pickup truck was involved in an acci dent. The girl remains hospital ized in Kansas City, Sanders said. Police have not said whether the girl was hurt or sexually abused. Little is known about the state of the body found in Clay Coun ty, or its possible connection to the case. Sherry Ballew, Ricci’s moth er, has said her daughter and Spicer were friends. Ballew told Kansas City sta tion KMBC-TVV in an interview broadcast Monday that an Inde pendence police officer told her about a body having been dis covered. She said she believed it is that of her daughter.
Newspaper Details
Joplin Globe
Joplin, Missouri, US
Wed, May 31, 2006
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Betty J.
USA 25 Jul 2026
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