Two troubled lives intersected in Missouri killing

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Richard Davis dropped out of junior high, jumped between jobs and spent more than half his life in jail. Dena Riley saw her marriages end in divorce, lost custody of her four children and was said to have abused drugs.

The two turbulent lives intersected sometime in the last year and together, this past week, stepped into a horrific spotlight. They are charged with the brutal killing of a woman whose torturous final moments they allegedly videotaped.

Davis was troubled from an early age, according to Stan Cothern, who once was married to the suspect's mother. Cothern said Davis had problems with authority and left home at an early age.

"He didn't stay around long," Cothern told The Kansas City Star. "He had friends who had apartments, and he'd go over and just run the streets."

Davis dropped out of school in the seventh grade, he said in a 1989 deposition. He spent four years in juvenile facilities, released just before his 18th birthday, after which he worked a series of jobs interrupted by additional jail terms.

He was sentenced to three years in prison for a mid-1980s burglary and was on parole just 18 months before his 1987 arrest for rape and sodomy. He spent nearly 18 years in prison before his release last May.

At some point since, both Davis, 41, and Riley, 39, worked together at a Kansas City fabricating business, he as an assembler and she as a janitor.

Riley got married soon after her high school graduation and three children followed soon after. But within several years, she had grown moody, resentful of wedlock and prone to disappearing for weeks at a time, said her ex-husband, Mark Riley.

"She got tired of being a mom," Mark Riley said, "and she started hanging around with people who were getting divorced."

Mark Riley filed for divorce in 1990. It was complicated by his wife's pregnancy with a fourth child. The girl was fathered by another man, whom she later married, and led to the divorce remaining open for 15 years.

Riley's second marriage ended in divorce, and both she and her estranged husband claimed the other had used drugs in front of their daughter. Custody was split, but later awarded entirely to the father.

Now, prosecutors are threatening both Davis and Dena Riley with a potential death penalty should they be convicted in the death of 41-year-old Marsha Spicer, whose body was found May 15 in a shallow grave near Bates City. Police say the victim is seen being beaten, sexually assaulted and choked on a videotape found at the apartment Davis and Riley shared in Independence.

Authorities have said the couple could possibly be linked to additional victims. An investigation continues.

Davis is expected to be arraigned Tuesday. It was unclear when Riley would appear in court.

---

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com