Man Who Shot Off Woman’s Foot Loses Appeal

TRENTON – In 2015, Ernest Davis and his girlfriend spent the day on his boat, The Storm, docked in Lower Township. They fought over her refusal to have sex. 
At one point, Davis pointed a shotgun at her face, threatening to kill her. The girlfriend called her sister to come to the dock to pick her up. As she attempted to flee the boat, Davis shot off her left foot with a shotgun blast. She later lost more of her leg to doctors’ attempts to repair the damage.
The court summary states that Davis then kissed his girlfriend on the forehead, apologized and left her bleeding on the boat. He went to a neighboring boat in a failed attempt to get someone to get rid of the shotgun.  
Davis was convicted of first-degree attempted murder and second-degree aggravated assault, along with a second-degree weapons offense and third-degree hindering apprehension. He was sentenced to aggregate 38 years.
Davis recently appealed the lower court decision to deny a petition for post-conviction relief (PCR) without an evidentiary hearing. The Appellate Court affirmed the lower court ruling May 23. Davis was given no relief.
In his appeal, Davis claimed ineffective assistance of counsel across several points. The appeals court decision singled out three of Davis’ claims for specific response.
First, Davis claimed that the trial attorney failed to object to the trial judge’s instruction to the jury concerning the attempted murder charge. Davis argued that he did not intend to kill his girlfriend, which is why he shot her in a non-vital area, the foot. Given the fact that Davis had repeatedly threatened to kill his girlfriend over the course of the day and had even aimed the shotgun at her face, the court did not see the judge’s instructions as something Davis’ trial attorney was obliged to object to.
Second, Davis argued that his trial and earlier appellate attorneys were ineffective when they did not argue that the evidence was insufficient to support conviction for attempted murder. In effect, Davis asserted that the evidence did not prove his intent to kill. 
Again, the totality of the evidence worked against his argument. The court noted that Davis rendered no assistance to his girlfriend after shooting her. Instead, he kissed her forehead, apologized, and left the boat seeking someone who would help dispose of the shotgun. Police later recovered the weapon in the water behind a neighboring boat.
Third, Davis claimed that the trial attorney should have raised an intoxication defense. That defense would have argued against the attempted murder charge due to the defendant’s inability to form the requisite intent. The court found sufficient evidence that Davis knew what he did was wrong and took actions to hide evidence.
Davis had first appealed his conviction in 2019. He lost that appeal. Among other assertions, Davis claimed that the sentence was excessive. The appellate judges at that time noted that the sentence took into account Davis’ previous out-of-state conviction for pointing a shotgun at a woman.
The latest attempt by Davis to adjust the most serious of the charges against him, that of attempted murder, failed. In the appeal, Davis was represented by a public defender. The appeal was opposed by the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.