04/09/08

Brian Ranard Davis

Another possible serial killer

Brian Ranard Davis was arrested for the death of Kandus Yvonne Hightower-Sharp, a pastor's daughter from Huntsville. He's also a person of interest in one of the six unsolved Acres Homes murders that began in 2006.

Approximately two and a half years ago women went missing, one by one, in a northwest Houston Texas neighborhood called Acres Homes.

Their partially disrobed bodies showed up dumped in ditches or grassy lots near their neighborhood. They were stabbed or strangled, and in the case before us burned to death.

Hightower-Sharp's badly burned body was found Aug. 4, 2007, just outside the city limits.  An autopsy revealed she died of several stab wounds, burns and smoke inhalation.

"From everything we're hearing, this was a random attack," Denholm said. "He actually poured gasoline on her and burned her alive, so it was a very horrible killing."

Davis is also a person of interest in the Sept. 22 death of Willie Bianca Jones, 18, who was strangled and dumped in the Acres Homes neighborhood after she was last seen riding in a car fitting the description of a vehicle he sometimes drove, said Houston Police Department Lt. Ron Walker

The break in the case came when HPD homicide officers investigating the Acres Homes killings received a tip from a witness who linked Davis to the deaths of Hightower-Sharp and another woman, Candice Marie Douglas, 26. Neither of the women had been part of the Acres Homes investigation previously.

The witness said Davis claimed he had kidnapped a woman as she walked down FM 1960, shoved her in the trunk of his girlfriend's car and later strangled her, a search warrant affidavit shows. Davis said the victim later began thrashing in the trunk, so he killed her and burned her body, the witness told investigators.

Investigators found stains that appeared to be blood under the trunk lid of the burgundy 1999 Mitsubishi Gallant owned by Davis' girlfriend when they seized the car last month after the witness came forward. Test results on Thursday revealed the DNA collected from the car trunk was consistent with Hightower-Sharp's DNA

Davis has an extensive criminal history. HPD arrested Davis for aggravated sexual assault in 2006, but that charge was reduced to misdemeanor assault, to which he pleaded guilty. He also was sentenced to three years in prison in 1995 for aggravated robbery.

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