Jury Hears 911 Tape as Opening Arguments Start in Klaas Case

The chilling 911 tape of Polly Klaas’ mother reporting her daughter’s abduction--her voice rising in growing horror--filled a courtroom Tuesday as opening statements began at the kidnapping and murder trial of Richard Allen Davis.

Eve Nichol, her voice fogged by sleep, told the 911 dispatcher that she had just been awakened by two girls attending a slumber party in 12-year-old Polly’s bedroom as Nichol slept nearby.

“Apparently, a man just broke into our house and they said he took my daughter,” she said.

“She’s not here,” she said later. “I didn’t hear anything.”

The tape was played by prosecutor Greg Jacobs as part of his opening statement, about 2 1/2 years after Polly was abducted and slain.

Later on the tape, Kate McKean, one of Polly’s playmates, described how the man burst into Polly’s room, tied the girls up and fled with his captive.

“We heard the screen door bang shut,” she said.

The jury of six men and six women, selected earlier in the day, listened attentively as Jacobs laid out his case, using maps to explain where Polly lived and describing witnesses who could put Davis in the neighborhood on the night of the kidnapping.

The swearing-in of the jury was a relief to Polly’s family.

“It’s like we’ve been in this dark hole. Now we’re out on the other side of the hole,” grandfather Joe Klaas said.

Estimates of the trial length vary from four to nine months.

“You will be with us for some period of time,” Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings told jurors.

Hastings said earlier that the trial may be over in mid-September. He has said he will not sequester jurors.

Before court opened, Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, said he hopes to be on hand during the trial to help keep the focus on the slaying of his daughter.

“We are here to represent Polly, to make sure that this trial stays on track,” he said during a news conference outside the courthouse.

Davis has said he was high on alcohol and drugs the night of the abduction.

A 41-year-old parolee with a violent record, he is accused of kidnapping Polly from a slumber party at her Petaluma home Oct. 1, 1993, and strangling her.

Davis was arrested Nov. 30, 1993. Four days later, police say, he led them to Polly’s body, dumped beside a highway.

Besides a count each of murder and kidnapping, Davis is charged with eight counts of robbery, burglary, attempted lewd acts with a minor, assault and attacks on two other girls at the slumber party. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Davis has pleaded innocent to all charges.

A judge moved the trial out of Sonoma County late last year after ruling that it would be impossible to get a fair jury in the county where Polly lived--and where thousands felt a personal connection to the bright seventh-grader.