On Sources & Reporting

I surely don't want to add the "we told you so" to such a horrible case...but it IS worth noting the reporting from AkronNewsNow and WAKR, WKYC's Eric Mansfield, 19 Action News team Sharon Reed and Ed Gallick, the Beacon Journal's Phil Trexler and the Canton Repository's team was pretty much right on the money in the Jessie Marie Davis case.

You may have missed today's widely-reported news on the filing from the Stark County Prosecutor with details on just what happened the day her body was found at the Top O' The World park site.


That day is still vivid in my mind; Toni Cicone and Joe Jastrzemski on WAKR, Kristen Russo's story on AkronNewsNow and 19 Action News anchor Sharon Reed first reported Bobby Cutts had confessed but our sources weren't holding news conferences -- that was two hours to come later. Eric Mansfield added critical details known only to investigators and his sources, including the report that Cutts himself led police to the site but at the time his report was dismissed.



Turns out he -- and other reporters -- were right.

Prosecutors, police and defense lawyers for Cutts and confessed accomplice Myisha Ferrell followed a self-imposed gag order before the case ever went before a judge, carefully limiting information in the case. It was a textbook example of controlling media we're now seeing play out in Chicago in the Stacey Peterson case, another high-profile missing woman that lept from the police blotter to the crime-and-punishment nightly TV lineup with a life of it's own.

There's plenty of room for debate on the treatment afforded these cases and the reporting style but what clearly isn't up for much debate now is that local reporters who trusted their sources acted responsibly, in large measure, in their reporting during the heat of the moment. Today's news reported first by the Canton Repository includes the now-confirmed truth from Prosecutor Ferraro's office: Bobby led them to Jessie's body.

The next step: will prosecutors take the death penalty off the table in exchange for a plea agreement? Ferrell took the deal, providing the State with damning testimony against Cutts and my gut tells me the filing by the Cutts defense team challenging the death penalty specification is positioning to force the prosecution hand on proving intent. If the capital spec holds, it puts more pressure on Cutts to accept a plea bargain if Jessie's family tells prosecutors they would be supportive. That's a question the family has been firm in side-stepping, and with good reason: it would weaken the case against Cutts to pull this legal weapon from their quiver.