Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
(Page 1 of 8)May 20, 2006
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
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"I keep hoping he's alive. That might sound funny, but I
just sort of hope all this has been a bad dream."
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Lanny Davis
(CBS) At age 19, Richard Davis joined the military,
following in his parent's footsteps. After serving in
Bosnia, Richard re-enlisted and found himself at the
forefront of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Just two days after his return to the United States,
Richard mysteriously vanished. What happened to him only
came to light months later.
Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on this case of
duty, death and dishonor.
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In a sad scene that has played out in homes across
America for the last three years, Lanny Davis opens a
box containing belongings from his son’s tour in Iraq.
"Richard was so proud of himself. He was a very
patriotic young man," he recalls.
For Lanny and Remy Davis, sorting through their son's
belongings is not just heartbreaking, it's baffling.
That's because their son, Specialist Richard Davis,
wasn't killed in Iraq. After returning home, he just
disappeared, and no one Lanny has talked to seems to
know why.
"I think everyone's lying. And I'll tell 'em that
straight to their face. Everyone is lying," he says.
Davis grew up an Army brat in California, Kansas and
Missouri. Being a soldier was in Richard's blood. His
mother was an Army medic and his father, Lanny, spent 20
years in the Army, serving several tours in Korea and
Vietnam as a military policeman. He saw combat many
times, and suffered a permanent wound to his vocal
cords.
In 1998, at age 19, Richard joined the family business
and was sent to Bosnia for his first assignment.
"That's when they was opening these mass graves. And my
son, of course, was there to witness this," Lanny
recalls. "He had a lot of hurt in his eyes. He couldn't
understand how humanity could be so cruel and mean. And
I seen on his face he wasn't the same Richard anymore."
And yet in 2001, when his three-year tour was up,
Richard re-enlisted and joined the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division and moved to Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. He
was assigned to B Company, and met the men who would be
his brothers in arms, soldiers like Jacob Burgoyne
"Three-hundred-sixty-five days a year, you're a soldier.
You know what you're there for — to represent your flag,
represent your people, represent your corps," explains
Burgoyne, who was one of B Company's top soldiers.
Burgoyne, a gunner, says, "I liked the fast moving pace,
I liked the attitude. I liked being in the uniform,
looking good, standing tall and having people under me."
"I love the Army. It's like becoming part of the
family," says Mario Navarette, who joined the Company in
2002. "My job, I was a dismount. I was riding on a
Bradley, which is a fighting vehicle that carries
personnel."
"I had a feeling that eventually something would happen
in the Middle East, I mean it's a volatile area, been
like that for thousands of years. Eventually we'd go
there," remembers Douglas Woodcoff, who volunteered for
the Army after Sept. 11.
Soon enough, they did head to the Middle East. On March
20, 2003, the invasion of Iraq began and B Company took
the lead.
The company saw a lot of action on the road to Baghdad
but the fiercest battles happened when they reached the
capital. "There was blood everywhere," Navarette
remembers. "You see people dying left and right. And
that was very, very scary."
In the thick of it was Richard Davis, and Navarette says
Davis was excited and not showing any sign of fear.
Richard was also acquiring a reputation for being
incredibly inventive.
"He had found, you know, a little head type nozzle and
some old five-gallon water canteen, jug type of deals.
And some old PVC pipe and made a little shower," recalls
Woodcoff.
The device, Woodcoff said, was so popular that there was
an hour or two wait just to take a two minute shower.
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
(Page 2 of 8)May 20, 2006
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
But as the weeks in Iraq wore on, the stress on the
company was growing. And Richard's behavior, according
to some soldiers, was becoming erratic and even
dangerous.
"When we were supposed to be doing a job he wouldn't do
it. He would wander off and just look for stuff," says
Woodcoff.
Richard's troubles seemed to come to a head one night in
Baghdad when he came to company medic Edward Wulff, his
hand bleeding from a knife wound.
Richard claimed two soldiers, Mario Navarette and
Alberto Martinez, had cut his hand open.
Wulff says Richard also told him the soldiers had hit
him several times.
But Navarette says the wound was self-inflicted, and
just one more example of Richard's increasingly strange
behavior.
"All of a sudden, Davis jumps up and says 'Make a pact,
become blood brothers,' " he says. "I remember cutting
our hands, and Davis cut his hand on top."
Regardless of what really happened that night, on May
20, Richard made a desperate phone call to his parents.
"He said he didn't have a safe place to lay his head.
He's tired of looking out for himself," Lanny recalls.
But Lanny didn't think Richard was scared of the enemy.
"I think he was talking about his own people, his own
soldiers, the comrades that he was afraid of. He was
crying. And he was begging me, 'Dad, can't you get me
out of here.' "
Lanny says it was the first time he heard his son cry or
beg for anything. It was also the last time he would
ever hear from his son.
In that last phone call to his parents, Richard was
distraught, but wouldn't say why. Lanny knew some of his
son's comrades considered him eccentric, and now he
wondered if Richard was being threatened by them.
"Does that make any sense to you that he'd be afraid of
his own fellow soldiers?" Moriarty asks Davis.
"Yes, it does. A lot of people picked on my son. Even in
the military," he replies.
But Richard hung up without explanation. He spent two
more months in the Middle East without calling again.
And even when he touched down on U.S. soil on July 13,
2003, he didn't phone home. Richard's friend and comrade
Justin Harris wasn't surprised, and says this was part
of his plan.
"He was gonna come home from the war, he had his Class
As all fixed up with his new ribbons and he was gonna go
fly to Missouri and knock on his parents' door and
surprise them."
But on his second afternoon back from the war, Richard
wasn't thinking about going home. He was going out on
the town, with four other soldiers, Douglas Woodcoff,
Alberto Martinez, Mario Navarette and Jacob Burgoyne.
"We all went together to get somethin' to eat. Went out
to Hooters," Burgoyne recalls. "It was spur of the
moment. We're all happy bein' back. I mean, everybody's
gung ho, everybody wants to go out with everybody."
"We didn't believe that we were actually in the States
and we were actually drinking and eating chicken wings.
But it was a wonderful feeling that we were all together
again," remembers Navarette.
After drinking beer for several hours at the restaurant,
the group drove to a strip club, where Navarette says
they had more drinks and played pool.
It was at this point, say the others, that Richard began
acting strangely.
"He was being rowdy and he was being insultive to one of
the women," claims Burgoyne.
And Navarette says Davis was making odd gestures towards
one of the dancers.
Woodcoff says Davis was "very drunk" at that point and
the bouncer "told us, referring to Davis, that he had
too much to drink and he was starting to pass out at the
bar. So Martinez and myself took him out to the car and
put him in the back seat so he can sleep. Went back
inside."
The other four soldiers continued to drink for about
another hour, but then left abruptly. Burgoyne and
Navarette apparently believed they had been kicked out
of the club because of Richard's behavior.
But Woodcoff disagrees. "I think Martinez told them that
to get them to leave."
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
When he got to the car, Burgoyne went after Richard, and
admits that he hit him a few times and that Richard
didn't hit back. Afterwards, Woodcoff says everyone got
back in the car, and he thought they were driving back
to the barracks.
It was around midnight when the five soldiers drove off
in Alberto Martinez' car. At formation the next day,
they all reported for duty, except Richard. The Army
didn't initiate an official search but listed Richard as
AWOL, absent without leave. And the four soldiers who
were with Richard weren't asked any questions.
"We tried numerous calls down there. And all we could
get from the unit at the time was, 'We're looking for
him,' " remembers Lanny.
Lanny and Remy were very worried, because they say it
didn't sound like their son to go AWOL.
By mid-August, Richard had been missing for a month, and
Lanny headed off to Georgia to search for his son
himself. "I kept hope that we'd find him, I'd find him.
It wouldn't mattered if I got a lead to go to South
America, I'd have went," he explains.
But when Lanny got to Fort Benning, he says it became
clear no one was looking very hard for his son. That's
when his old military policeman instincts kicked in.
Lanny starting digging around, and soon made a
significant discovery.
"If you're gonna go AWOL, number one, you gotta think
about it at least for five minutes. And when you think
about that, 'Well, I better bring some clothing. You
know, I better bring my shaving gear or my toothbrush or
my medication, whatever it is,' " says Lanny.
Instead, Richard had taken nothing.
It wasn't until September, two months after Richard
disappeared, that the Army finally opened an official
investigation. The four soldiers still hadn't told
anyone they were out with Richard the night he
disappeared.
But, on Nov. 7, 2003, a tip came in that led to a
gruesome discovery. Coroner James Dunnavant says
Richard's remains were scattered in woods several miles
from Fort Benning. They had been there for months.
All that was left of Richard were his bones, and
Dunnavant says nicks and cuts on the bones indicated to
investigators that Richard had been stabbed multiple
times.
"He was stabbed in the head, neck and chest.
Approximately 33 times," Dunnavant says. But those were
the stab wounds his team could find; because all that
was left of Richard was his bones, Dunnavant said he was
sure Richard was stabbed more than 33 times.
Their worst fears now realized, Lanny and Remy finally
brought Richard home to bury him. But the search for who
killed their son was only beginning; Lanny is now
convinced his son was the victim of premeditated murder.
"I can just hardly imagine about the fear he had," says
Lanny.
The truth about what happened to Richard was still a
secret months after he disappeared. The four soldiers
who were with him had kept to themselves. And one of
them, Jacob Burgoyne, told investigators he had last
seen Richard alive. But Burgoyne then told his closest
friend, Matt Thompson, a completely different story.
"He said, 'I got to tell you something. I don't know if
I should, but it's bothering me,' " Thompson said.
In a drunken conversation with Thompson, Burgoyne made a
startling revelation. "He said 'I know who did it to
Davis. I know who killed Davis.' He said, 'I was there,'
" Thompson says.
Burgoyne even told Thompson where Richard's body lay.
Thompson says Burgoyne offered to take him to the body,
near Columbus, Georgia, but Thompson wouldn’t go.
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
However, he did make sure Burgoyne's secret was passed
around and on November 7, 2003, Army investigators
finally heard the story, and found Richard’s remains.
Because the crime happened off the base, the Columbus
Police Department took over. And the four soldiers who
were last with Davis — Jacob Burgoyne, Alberto Martinez,
Mario Navarette and Douglas Woodcoff — were charged with
murder.
Detective Andrew Tyner says Alberto Martinez refused to
talk. "And I attempted to interview Woodcoff, and he
said 'I have no idea as to what you're talking about,' "
he recalls.
But Det. Tyner had no trouble getting Burgoyne to talk
about the night of July 14. Tyner says Burgoyne was very
open, right from the beginning.
Burgoyne now admits the fight he started with Richard
outside the strip club continued when the five soldiers
drove away.
Burgoyne tells Moriarty that Martinez was driving, and
that he pulled over in a wooded area miles from Fort
Benning, and everyone got out.
"And that's when I thought, 'Well hell. We're gonna
fight. We're gonna do it right here,' " Burgoyne
explains.
Burgoyne says he started hitting Richard again. Richard
asked Burgoyne to leave him alone and covered his face.
But what happened next, Burgoyne says, took him
completely by surprise: Martinez pulled a knife. "And
that's when Martinez came out and just — thump — stuck
him right in his side. His left side," Burgoyne tells
Moriarty.
Asked why, Burgoyne said Martinez didn't give an answer.
After being stabbed, Burgoyne says Richard fell to the
ground.
Navarette says he tried to intervene. "I'm like, 'Whoa,
what are you doing Martinez? You can't do this, man. We
got to get 'em to a hospital. We can still save him.'
And he's like, 'Nah, man, he's gonna report us. If we
take him to a hospital he's gonna report us and we're
gonna get in trouble.' And I'm over here, I'm losing it.
I'm telling Burgoyne, 'Please man, stop it,' " Navarette
says.
"We started talking to him, and trying to plead with
him," Burgoyne says.
"And then Burgoyne tells me, he grabs my shoulder and he
said, 'Calm down. Promise me to calm down. I'll take
care of this little brother. I'll talk to Martinez.' So
I turned around and I walked towards the car," Navarette
tells Moriarty.
Navarette claims he saw nothing of what happened next
and Woodcoff claims he had drunkenly wandered away, and
heard only a muffled argument. This left Burgoyne as the
only witness.
"I looked around, I seen him on top of Davis, he hit
him, he stuck him and he was hittin' him all in the back
area in the kidney area and the lung area back in the
back and the neck and skull area. He just started goin'
on a rampage with him like I ain't never seen a man do.
Never seen a man do that," Burgoyne says.
Asked what Richard was saying, Burgoyne says, "Said he
had a family, screamin'. Said he had a family."
Burgoyne says he just stood there. "Last thing he said
was he was dead. He was dead. He said it twice. And then
I didn't hear no more sounds. Martinez kept stickin'
him. Takin' his time just kept stickin' him and stickin'
him and stickin' him. And he was puttin' the blade in
and then churnin' it. That was it. It was over."
"You could've stopped him," Moriarty says. "You didn't
even try."
"No," Burgoyne replies. "I explained to him verbally but
not physically, no I didn't. Not when I saw his eyes. I
saw the blood in his eyes and all you can do is see red.
That was it. And he wanted to kill that guy. He wanted
to. That was his thing. It scared the s--- outta me."
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
During Martinez' entire rampage, Burgoyne insists he was
merely a bystander. It was only after Richard was dead
that Burgoyne says he sprung into action.
"I grabbed his legs and Martinez grabbed his arms. I
just moved him off into the brush about five feet,"
Burgoyne recalls.
Asked why he would help Martinez, Burgoyne said, "I just
wanted to go home. I wanted to get outta there, get away
from it."
Next, all four soldiers drove to a convenience store
where Burgoyne bought lighter fluid. Then they drove
back to the woods.
Burgoyne says he poured lighter fluid on Richard's body,
lit a match, and then ran away.
Asked how he could do this, he says: "It was like I had
no conscience. He was a dead body. It was like I had
lost control and I wanted to get back and that was the
only way to do it. And that's what I thought off the top
of my head. 'Burn him.’ "
A few nights later, Burgoyne, Martinez and Navarette
went back to hide Richard's remains deeper in the woods.
The four soldiers then all went their separate ways
until they were arrested nearly four months later, and
Burgoyne gave police his statement.
When Lanny Davis heard what Burgoyne told police, he was
furious. He says he doesn't buy the story that Martinez
stabbed his son while the others simply stood by.
"That's the biggest crock of lies I ever heard in my
life," Lanny says.
Asked what makes him think they're lying, Lanny says:
"Because they're not afraid of Martinez. Martinez wasn't
the ring leader. I think Burgoyne was."
Justin Harris, who served in the military with all four
men arrested for Richard's murder, is also puzzled. He
finds it hard to believe Martinez, who was married and a
father and about to leave the Army, would commit such a
crime.
"As far as I've known Martinez, a couple years, he never
even got into a fight. I was surprised by the whole
situation really. But as far as picking a person out of
it … it wouldn't be Martinez," says Harris.
But Harris says Burgoyne's involvement isn't surprising
at all. In fact, just before B Company deployed to Iraq
in January 2003, Burgoyne had a confrontation with
Richard at another strip club.
"Richard threw some change on the stage. And the lady
that was on the stage took that offensive. And we ended
up being asked to leave. And Burgoyne said, 'All I want
to know is, who threw the change?' " Harris recalls.
"And Richard raised his hand, almost instantly, and
said, 'I did.' And when he said that, Burgoyne then
started hitting him."
Harris says Burgoyne hit Richard pretty hard.
"So, hearing that Jake was involved in this event,
whatever it was that ended up with the death of Richard
Davis, isn't that surprising to you?" Moriarty asks
Harris.
"Not really. It doesn't surprise me much at all," he
replies.
But Burgoyne's mother, Billie Urban, never doubted her
son or his story that Martinez alone stabbed Richard.
What she could not understand is why Burgoyne would
watch it all happen, and then cover it up.
"It's like it's another person, 'cause that's not
something my son would do," she says.
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
But shortly after Burgoyne was arrested, Billie
discovered medical records among his things that she
says explain a lot about her son's actions that night.
Soon after he left the war zone, Burgoyne reported that
he thought he might hurt someone. Even more alarming,
while in Kuwait about a week before the murder, he
overdosed on prescription drugs.
Burgoyne tells Moriarty he tried to kill himself and
ended up in a medical clinic, where he says he wanted to
get help. "It scared me, really," he says.
Burgoyne was diagnosed with PTSD, post-traumatic stress
disorder, and it was directed that he be monitored at
all times, that he not carry weapons and that he report
to the psychiatric unit when he returned to Fort Benning.
"Jake literally, for the most part, lived life on the
edge physically and mentally he's capable of doing a lot
of things," says Harris. "And when you have that type of
soldier confront you with a problem, you better take
action right away."
When Burgoyne arrived at Fort Benning, Billie was there
to greet her son. She was surprised when he was
immediately escorted to the psychiatric unit of the
hospital. But he never saw a psychiatrist, he just spoke
to one on the phone.
"And he told me, 'Look, you come back and show up
Monday. Just promise me you'll be there.' And I said
'OK, I will,' " recalls Burgoyne.
Then Burgoyne was simply released without treatment.
Four days later, Richard was murdered.
"The Army just said, well, 'OK, call us Monday and go
ahead and have a good time,' in effect," says
psychologist John Stuart Currie, who was hired by
Burgoyne's attorney.
Currie says it was not a responsible way to handle
someone like Burgoyne. "He should have been hospitalized
in a locked unit," he says.
Lanny thinks Burgoyne is just making excuses, and that
all four soldiers are guilty. For one, Lanny says he
doesn't believe Burgoyne suffered from post traumatic
stress disorder. "Let's say they all did have PTSD,
there's still no excuse for murdering a man like that,
like they murdered my son," he says.
As they prepare for the trial, prosecutors Stacey
Jackson and Gray Conger make a pivotal decision: they
believe Burgoyne's version of the story, and will argue
that Martinez did all the stabbing. Proving that,
however, wouldn’t be easy.
"Our evidence against Martinez was very lacking at that
point, so we wanted somebody to testify," says Conger.
There's no physical evidence that ties Martinez to the
murder, so prosecutors need at least two of the others
to testify against him. After months of negotiating,
they get what they want, but not the two soldiers they
were expecting.
Woodcoff agrees to cooperate once his murder charge is
dropped. Navarette gets the same offer, but
surprisingly. turns it down. That leaves prosecutors
with the one option they had hoped to avoid — striking a
deal with Burgoyne, the man who admits he started the
attack against Richard that night.
"Were you at all concerned when you picked Burgoyne to
make a deal with that you might be making a deal with
the guy who did the actual stabbing?" Moriarty asks
Jackson.
"I had no concern," Jackson replies.
Finally, on Jan. 23, 2006, in a Columbus, Ga.,
courthouse, Alberto Martinez and Mario Navarette go on
trial for the murder of Richard Davis.
Duty, Death, Dishonor
A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
Prosecutors open their case forcefully, giving graphic
details of the killing. But when Woodcoff takes the
stand, he can’t say he actually witnessed Martinez do
the stabbing.
"I saw Mr. Martinez kneeling or squatting and swinging,"
Woodcoff testifies. Asked if there was a human down
there, he tells the court, "I did not see one. The grass
is very tall."
Prosecutors are now completely dependent on Burgoyne's
testimony.
Asked by Prosecutor Jackson what happened after Davis
fell to the ground, Burgoyne testifies: "Navarette was
talking to Martinez saying, 'You can't do it. You can't
do it.' And I was looking at Davis. And I saw his shirt
torn with a little hole in the side. And there was some
blood on there. And I looked at Martinez. And I knew he
just had the knife in his hand."
Meanwhile, the defense buys none of Burgoyne's story.
Martinez' attorney Bob Wadkins tries to convince the
jury that the prosecution's star witness, Jacob
Burgoyne, is the real killer.
Confronted by the defense attorney, Burgoyne maintains
he did not stab or kill Richard. "I was mad at him but I
didn't have no knife or anything to stab him with," he
testifies.
Burgoyne holds his own on the stand and he doesn’t let
anyone off the hook. "I know who the killer is, I know
who is involved, I know my part in it, I'm just as
guilty. I'm guilty just like everyone up here is guilty.
Everyone here is guilty," he testifies.
Once the prosecution rests, Navarette unexpectedly takes
the stand in his own defense and immediately regrets it.
"On that night while only a few feet from where Davis
was stabbed 33 times, you want this jury to believe you
didn't see who stabbed Davis?" Jackson asks.
"I did not see or hear anything. Because I was in the
car crying like a little girl, and I didn't see what was
going on," Navarette responds on the stand.
Martinez never utters a word, and the case goes to the
jury.
After only two and a half hours, the jurors return with
their verdicts, finding Martinez and Navarette guilty of
murdering Richard Davis. The two men are sentenced to
life in prison immediately.
But Richard's parents’ ordeal isn’t over yet. Three days
later, they are back in court for the sentencing of
Burgoyne, who had already pled guilty to voluntary
manslaughter.
Lanny wasn't allowed to address the court when Martinez
and Navarette were sentenced. But now, he finally gets
his chance.
Facing Burgoyne, Lanny says on the stand: "I wanna look
at his face. You murdered my son. I don't forgive you.
You're nothing but a cold blooded, dirty murderer. The
Lord himself doesn't forgive people like you. Whatever
demon you worship won't forgive you. There's not a name
in this world that's bad enough for you. If I had my
way, you wouldn't be sitting here right now. You're
lucky I can't get my hands on you."
Under the terms of Burgoyne's plea deal, the judge has
the right to give him the maximum sentence, which he
does: 20 years in prison.
The ordeal devastates Burgoyne's mother, Billie Urban.
"I wish I could bring back their son. It's just changed
everybody's lives, you know? We won't forget it," she
says.
The following week, Woodcoff pleads guilty to concealing
a death and is sentenced to five years of probation.
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A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes
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Spc. Richard Davis (CBS)
The Richard Davis case is now closed, but the trial
failed to answer one crucial question. In fact, it
barely came up at all: why was Richard murdered?
At this point, only one man may know. Although Alberto
Martinez wouldn't talk to 48 Hours, he did talk to Mario
Navarette but didn't say much.
"When I asked, he has no explanation. He told me he
didn't do it," Navarette tells Moriarty.
And Woodcoff also says he doesn't know why Martinez
stabbed Richard.
Incredibly, both Woodcoff and Burgoyne claim they never
even asked him.
"I didn't wanna say nothin' more to that man," says
Burgoyne.
But Lanny Davis thinks he may know the reason. In an
article about Richard's murder published in May 2004,
Playboy magazine reported that Martinez and Navarette
were alleged to have raped a young Iraqi woman while
guarding a mall, and that Richard might have known about
it.
"I believe that what he might have seen over there,
whether it was a rape or some other atrocities, I
believe that he probably reported that. There's no way I
can prove that, but knowing my son, he would say
something," says Lanny.
An Army investigation launched after the article was
published found no evidence of rape, but it did find
that some soldiers paid for sex with Iraqi women.
Douglas Woodcoff says this was common knowledge, and
that he did not think Richard's murder had anything to
do with it.
However, Woodcoff does think there could be a connection
between their combat experiences in Iraq and Richard's
brutal murder so soon after they returned.
"There could be an elaborate reason, or it could be just
cause," he says.
"Just cause? It seems too violent," Moriarty remarks.
"It does seem too violent. But we were only back for a
couple days at the most," says Woodcoff. "And coming
from a battle zone where you solved your problems with
violence."
"I mean that's how war is. You train and train to hone
your skills to gain the knowledge you need to kill. But
then, when it's done, people aren't looking at the other
side," says Burgoyne.
"Do you think that's what was going on? That Martinez
was acting in the same way as he would have in Iraq?"
Moriarty asks Woodcoff.
"It could have been," he replies.
What drove Martinez to kill that night may always be a
mystery, but there is evidence that this war is taking a
psychological toll on soldiers. One recent Army study
found that nearly one in five Iraq war veterans reported
mental health problems, and another study recommended
better counseling.
"Nobody ever sat down in a room, one on one, and talked
about what we went through and what was going on in our
minds," says Navarette.
Ironically, on the very night Richard was murdered,
Woodcoff was still worried about his post-war state of
mind. "That night I did distinctively remember before I
started drinking, I didn't take a belt with me, a knife
with me because I didn't want to take that chance of
being put in the situation with me thinking I'm still in
Iraq and taking it out on a local," he explains.
The Army refused to comment on any aspect of the Richard
Davis case, or how they deal with the issues facing
soldiers returning from Iraq, including Jacob Burgoyne.
Instead, they released a short statement to 48 Hours,
saying they mourn Richard's loss, and are grateful that
those responsible for his murder have been bought to
justice.
As soldiers from the 3rd I-D, Richard's old unit, train
for a potential re-third deployment to Iraq, Lanny
continues to mourn for a soldier who will never fight
again and who will never come home.
"I keep hoping he's alive,” Lanny says. “That might
sound funny but I just sort of hope all this has been a
bad dream."
Douglas Woodcoff is currently attending college in
Texas. Mario Navarette and Alberto Martinez are both
appealing their convictions. Navarette claims he had
ineffective counsel. Martinez plans to present a defense
of post traumatic stress disorder.
And last week, a government study found that four out of
five soldiers who showed signs of PTSD were never
referred for treatment.
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