Suspect in Carrollton girl's murder escapes custody

A man arrested for the murder of a 16-year-old Carrollton resident earlier this year temporarily escaped from police custody Tuesday night. Franklin Davis, 30, overpowered a deputy, took his gun and escaped from Parkland Hospital in Dallas at about 8:15 p.m.

Davis was located in a van near Harry Hines Blvd. about an hour later but did not surrender to police until 10:45 p.m. After the standoff ended, he complained of chest pains and was taken back to the hospital for medical attention before being transferred back to the Dallas County Jail.

No was harmed in the incident.

Davis was admitted to the hospital on Saturday for “severe complaints,” Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez said during a press conference Wednesday. Valdez said that during visits to the hospital, inmates are required to be escorted at all times, but that procedure was not fully followed with Davis. She did not go into further detail on what mistakes were made for security reasons, she said.

“Our transportation unit escorts an average of 20 inmates to Parkland Hospital per day,” a release summarizing Valdez' comments said. “It’s an average of 4,200 trips to Parkland a year and we have had one escape. Of course we will re-evaluate this to make sure this doesn’t happen again. An escape did occur and we will look into it. It is incidents like this that confirm the need for facilities like the upcoming medical mod currently being constructed in our north tower.”

Davis was in custody for the murder of Shania Gray. While bing held at the Carrollton Municipal Jail on unrelated traffic warrants in September, he told officers he killed Gray shortly after picking her up from school on Sept. 6.

Davis did not give a clear motive as to why he killed her. However, according to the arrest affidavit, Davis contacted Gray through Facebook and gained information about an upcoming trial in which Gray would be a witness.

Davis told police that he had used a pre-paid cellphone to arrange a meeting with Gray at Hebron High School the day of the murder. According to Davis's affidavit, Gray was surprised to see him when he arrived at school.

Davis then told police that Gray got into his vehicle after being told that Davis wanted to talk to her about the upcoming trial.

After leaving Hebron High School, Davis drove Gray to the Champion Trail trailhead at Valley View Lane and IH 635. According to the arrest affidavit, Gray asked Davis if he was going to hurt her and Davis told her he simply wanted to talk about the case.

After they walked down to the river, Davis stated that he used the .38-caliber pistol he brought with him and shot her twice. Davis stated that Gray fell partially into the river. Davis then told police that he reached down and pulled Gray up onto the bank of the river and stepped on her neck until she stopped breathing.

Davis also told police several locations where they could obtain evidence -- where he shot and killed Gray, and to a pond at the intersection of Royal Lane and Las Colinas Boulevard where he threw the pistol.

Jon Stovall, public information officer for Carrollton Police Department, said Gray's body had been in the river for two days before a passerby saw her and notified police.

In March 2010, Gray reported that she was a victim of a felony criminal offense in which Davis was the suspect, according to Davis's arrest affidavit. He has also been charged in Dallas County with felony counts of sexual assault of a child, but Stovall said at the time of the arrest that it was unclear exactly how Gray was involved in the case.

Davis told police how he picked Gray up from school and killed her, leading officers to believe the murder was somehow related to the pending case.

Carrollton PD found through cell phone records that Davis and Gray had been in contact with each other the day she went missing. The records also revealed that Davis and Gray were at the same place at the same time, including Hebron High School at about 4 p.m., when she was last seen, according to the arrest affidavit.

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