AUGUSTA — A judge on Monday ruled that a woman arrested here a month ago is in fact Yashonia Davis, who is wanted in New York on a murder indictment.
Justice Robert Mullen ruled from the bench following an extradition hearing Monday at the Capital Judicial Center.
Davis, 47, of Augusta, Maine, and Bronx, New York, had contested extradition at her first court appearance following her May 30 arrest on a warrant from New York on Pierce Drive near Cony High School.
A warrant is in progress to get her back to New York to face the charge of murder in the 2nd degree, and Mullen said that if the warrant is received, a bail hearing will be held Aug. 23.
Davis’s attorney, Charles T. Ferris, had argued that Maine failed to meet its burden of proving that the woman is Davis and that there was probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Ferris said he wanted someone from New York City to authenticate the various documents.
Assistant District Attorney Tyler LeClair introduced into evidence an audio recording of a phone call Davis made from the Kennebec County jail in which she recited both her birth date and her Social Security number so a person could activate a credit card on her behalf. LeClair also pointed to a record from the Automated Fingerprint Identification System indicating that fingerprints taken when she was booked at the jail were identified as those of Yashonia Davis, who uses an alias of Michelle Davis.
Ferris questioned Maine State Trooper David Alexander, a member of the Maine Violent Offender Task Force, who stopped her motor vehicle that day. Davis was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals deputies as well as New York police.
Alexander testified he found a Maine driver’s license issued to a Monique McFaline in the vehicle, and Davis told him, “I did not say that is who I am.”
Alexander said he contacted authorities in New Jersey and New York and obtained driver’s license and other records for McFaline that had photos that did not match Davis.
Davis is wanted in connection with the slaying of Abraham Caraballo, 52, of Bronx Park South, according to information from the New York Police Department’s Public Information Office.
Caraballo died of wounds May 8 in Saint Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, New York, police say. Police responded to a 911 call on April 21 at an apartment at 946 Bronx Park South and found Caraballo in a hallway “unconscious and unresponsive with a laceration and trauma to his head,” as well as a 57-year woman “with a laceration and trauma to her head.”
The woman, who was taken to the same hospital, was listed in stable condition.
A warrant for Davis’s arrest was authorized May 30 by Judge Jeffrey M. Zimmerman. Davis is charged with murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the first degree; the indictment followed on June 20, 2018, and an arrest warrant on that was issued the next day, LeClair said.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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