Father in Abuse Case Called Sane but Delusional

Two psychologists found that a man accused of killing one child and chaining others to shield them from society was legally sane, though he periodically believed he was Jesus and was at times unwilling to speak to his attorney, insisting that God would “make it right.”

The psychologists, whose reports were unsealed Friday by a judge, also said John Davis experienced auditory and visual hallucinations and attempted suicide shortly after his arrest.

Despite the suggestions of instability, the psychologists found Davis mentally fit for trial because he was able to understand the charges he was facing.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge James C. McGuire used the documents to rule in March that Davis was competent to stand trial. The 53-year-old Davis, patriarch of a desert family who dubbed himself “Rajohn Lord,” hanged himself seven days later in a holding facility at a sheriff’s substation in Joshua Tree.

Investigators arrested Davis, his wife, Carrie Lee Davis, and a family friend, Faye Potts, in October. The Davises’ older son, 17-year-old Yahweh, had called 911 to report that he and his brother, 12-year-old Angel, were being held prisoner at a desert compound in Wonder Valley, east of Joshua Tree.

Investigators say the boys, who had never been to school or a doctor, were hidden from the outside world. They bore the marks of chains and whips. Authorities say the boys were filthy, malnourished and underdeveloped, with chunks of hair missing from their scalps.

They had been chained up while eating, sleeping and studying the Bible, and had been beaten with a plastic bundle known as the “rod of correction,” investigators charge. Doctors say Yahweh weighed just 75 pounds.

Prosecutors later added murder charges after evidence emerged that a third Davis child had died. Detectives said that boy, Rainbow, died about 10 years ago after being abused. The Davises, who insist that Rainbow was sickly from the start, allegedly burned his body in a trash can. Investigators have never found the body.

Potts and Carrie Davis remain in jail, awaiting trial.

One of the court-ordered psychologists, Albert Shnaider, said that Davis suffered from a “psychotic illness” but that its nature was unclear. Though Davis had told his attorney, Richard V. Crouter, that he believed he was Jesus Christ, Davis had denied that during an interview with Shnaider. Davis had also reported that he respected Crouter, who declined to comment Friday, and would cooperate with him.

“He reported that he hears God in his dreams,” Shnaider’s report says. “He reported that God was always with him and told him to be good and not to worry, and to raise his children properly, and that his actions . . . were predicated in the fact that he wanted to protect them from their own misbehavior.”

The report says Davis passed a series of tests. He could perform simple math and could spell the word “world” forward and backward. Davis correctly interpreted the saying “two heads are better than one” and recognized the names Boris Yeltsin and Saddam Hussein.

“While Mr. Davis may be somewhat delusional . . . he is able to explain his beliefs in a clear and coherent manner,” the report says. “His beliefs do not preclude him from interacting and cooperating with his attorney or with the court system.”

Judge McGuire released the documents Friday at the request of The Times. But he denied a Times request to lift a gag order imposed on the attorneys involved in the case, citing concerns about fairness and pretrial publicity.

“There are going to be no back-room, secret deals to avoid the media,” he said. “The media will still have full access to what occurs in the courtroom. . . . I’ve been pretty liberal about that.”

Susan E. Seager, an attorney for The Times, said, “We don’t believe there was enough evidence that there was publicity that would make it impossible to find an impartial jury.”