Boy, 15, Faces Trial in Slaying of Mother

A 15-year-old boy was ordered Thursday by a Municipal Court judge to stand trial for murder in the slaying of his mother last year.

Joseph William Davidson put on earplugs before he shot his mother in the head, and later told police that he regretted not killing her when he was 9 or 10 years old, according to chilling testimony during Thursday’s court hearing.

Glendale Police Det. Arthur Frank testified that Davidson confessed to shooting his mother and that he wished he had done it sooner “because they can’t send you away as long.”

The statements were made to police shortly after Davidson turned himself in following the Aug. 16, 1996, fatal shooting of his mother in their Glendale apartment, Frank said.

Davidson has spent the past year in a juvenile detention facility as prosecutors successfully sought to have him tried as an adult for the slaying of Tinann Turner Davidson. The elder Davidson, who was 52 at the time of her death, died of a single gunshot wound to the forehead.

While Frank’s testimony painted a grim picture of the crime, Davidson’s lawyer, Mark De Wit, said he was considering a defense showing that the teenager was mentally, physically and sexually abused by the woman who adopted him when he was less than a year old.

At hearings in July, Davidson was described as a young man who was subjected to a strict upbringing in which his mother hit him and yelled at him.

Testimony described a confusing relationship with his mother in which she made him wash her in the bathtub until he was 10 years old. Davidson also described “conversations” he had had with such biblical figures as Moses and King David, according to witnesses at the earlier hearing.

De Wit said Davidson’s birth mother was a mentally ill transient with a substance-abuse problem.

“It’s a very troubling case,” he said.

Also testifying Thursday was Raymond Soria, 17, a former friend and neighbor of Davidson in the Raymond Avenue apartment complex in Glendale in which they lived.

Soria testified he was in his apartment smoking marijuana with a friend when Davidson stopped by on the day of the slaying.

Davidson said he wanted to shoot another acquaintance because the two had fought earlier, Soria said.

“He wanted me to call [the friend]” to arrange a meeting so that Davidson could shoot him, Soria said. “I told him to go shoot his mom; I was just joking. I didn’t think he’d take it seriously. He didn’t laugh, he just said, ‘Yeah.’ ”

After the conversation, Soria said, Davidson left. Ten minutes later, he said, Davidson returned to Soria’s apartment with a gun in his waistband.

Soria said he asked Davidson if he could see the gun, and then inspected the chrome-plated, .38-caliber revolver.

“I told Joey the gun had been fired,” Soria said. “He said, ‘I did it.’ I told him to leave because I was scared.”

Frank during his testimony described Davidson as an “uninhibited” suspect during questioning, answering the queries of investigators without hesitation.

“[Davidson] said he wished he’d [killed his mother] when he was 9 or 10 because they can’t send you away as long,” Frank testified.

Davidson also told investigators his mother was a very strict disciplinarian who frequently told her son of his inadequacies, notably his haphazard cleaning of the house, and that he “was a very bad boy,” Frank said.

Davidson told police he put plugs in his ears, took a gun and approached his mother, who was sitting at a table, and shot her, Frank testified.