Woman arrested in death of Sikeston man

A Sikeston, Missouri, woman has been charged with murder after police say she deliberately ran over 57-year-old John Sharber in a discount store parking lot.

Savannah R. Davis, 27, faces charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action, court records show.

According to a probable-cause affidavit filed by Detective Chris Rataj of the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, Davis ran over Sharber, also of Sikeston, in a Wal-Mart parking lot, then drove around for three hours before dropping him off at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

Savannah R. Davis

About 12:25 a.m. Friday, a security officer at Saint Francis found Sharber face-down in the parking lot, unconscious and apparently suffering from a head injury, Rataj wrote.

After doctors diagnosed Sharber with a cracked skull and other internal injuries, he was taken to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where he later died, Rataj wrote.

Sharber's wife told police her husband -- who works on used washers and dryers for resale -- had been having problems with a woman in a maroon car who was upset with work he had done for her or an appliance he had sold her, Rataj wrote.

Sharber's truck was found at the Wal-Mart store in Sikeston, where surveillance video showed a maroon car pull up beside Sharber's truck at 9:01 p.m. Thursday. Sharber appeared to talk to someone in the car before starting to walk away, at which point the car ran over him, Rataj wrote.

A man and woman came from a few rows over and helped the driver put Sharber in the back seat of the maroon car, which then drove out of the parking lot, Rataj wrote.

The man later told police he and the woman had seen Sharber on the ground and thought he had passed out.

He said the driver, who would not give her name, identified Sharber as "Johnny Arbuckle" and "told them that Mr. Sharber was drunk and she was taking him home to his wife," Rataj wrote. "He said Mr. Sharber seemed like he was passed out, he didn't see any injuries and they believed they were doing the right thing to help."

From a lineup of six photographs, the man identified Davis as the driver of the car.

Based on cellphone records, Rataj determined Davis had called Sharber 22 times between 8 and 8:57 p.m., he wrote.

According to the affidavit, Rataj also used cellphone records and tower locations to determine Davis had taken Sharber to the west side of Sikeston, then north on backroads to Cape Girardeau, driving around about three hours before Sharber was found at Saint Francis.

On Saturday afternoon, Capt. James McMillen of the Sikeston Department of Public Safety reported Davis was in custody in Blytheville, Arkansas, awaiting extradition to Missouri.

A New Madrid County, Missouri, judge set her bond at $100,000 cash only.

Davis was interviewed Friday in Blytheville, where authorities found her about 11:15 p.m. Thursday, McMillen said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Online court records show Davis has had prior legal troubles, including:

• In June 2005, Davis pleaded guilty to a Scott County charge of tampering with physical evidence and was placed on one year of unsupervised probation.
• In November 2005, Davis pleaded guilty to credit-card theft and was sentenced to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
• She pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges in August 2007, March 2010 and August 2010. She was sentenced to four years in the Department of Corrections in the most recent child endangerment case.
• In November 2010, she pleaded guilty to credit-card theft and was sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections.
• On June 4, Davis was charged with second-degree assault and third-degree domestic assault.

Cape Girardeau and Blytheville police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol assisted in the investigation.