William Davis, Jr. Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison for Sexually Abusing a Minor in 2007

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that on February 7, 2014, Chief U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen, sentenced William Decature Davis, Jr., 47, of Havre, Montana, to a term of 36 months’ in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for the 2007 sexual abuse of a minor.

Davis was convicted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl after a four-day jury trial that began on November 12, 2013. At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Betley presented evidence that the victim, now 12, came forward in August of 2012 and was interviewed by the FBI. She alleged that the defendant, William Davis, Jr., who also goes by “Rooster,” raped her in the summer of 2007 when she was 6. The defendant, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was at the time a neighbor of the girl and her mother in a trailer park on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

The victim testified that she woke up one night and could not find her mother. She walked next door to her neighbor’s trailer to look for her mother. The victim walked into the trailer and saw the defendant sitting on the couch and drinking beer. The defendant called the victim over, and he grabbed her by the front of the shirt and sexually assaulted the girl. When the assault was over, the victim put her clothes on and ran out the door.

The FBI interviewed Davis two days after the disclosure, and he admitted he had sexually abused the victim approximately five-and-a-half years ago in the summer of 2007. In his statement, while denying the more serious assault described by the victim, he conceded that he had sexually molested the child and expressed regret for his conduct.