Jury quickly convicts killer; death sentence next?

It did not take long for a jury to find Daniel Davis guilty of murder. Jurors began deliberation in Judge Nadine Allen's court on Friday morning, and by this afternoon, Davis was guilty.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, the same jurors will begin the sentencing phase of the trial for Davis, who is now eligible for the death penalty.

The siren call of heroin ruined Davis' life, the killer readily admitted Wednesday in court where he is on trial for his life.

Davis was so desperate to chase the heroin high or cure himself of being "drug sick" -- fighting withdrawal -- that he would do almost anything for money to feed his addiction.

He lived in an East Price Hill apartment with no electricity because he couldn't pay the utility bills, spending his money instead on heroin. His body bore the scabs and scars of his scratching at his bedbug bites. He was always hungry and short of food.

"I tried to beat that heroin, man. I lost everything. I was a failure," Davis testified Wednesday during his murder trial, in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

The lure of heroin, though, was so strong it resulted in Davis beating, strangling and stabbing to death 79-year-old John "Jack" Lauck.

Davis took the stand Wednesday and proclaimed his innocence while verbally jousting with Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Prem. Davis readily admitted he lied often to the police who questioned him after they found Lauck's body Aug. 19, 2012, in his home in the 500 block of Purcell Avenue.

Lauck, 79, hired Davis, now 49, to paint Lauck's house. Davis used the money for heroin. "I wasn't getting high at that point. I was running from the sickness" of withdrawal, Davis testified.

Initially, Davis told police he wasn't at Lauck's home Aug. 18 or 19, when Lauck was killed. He admitted Wednesday, though, that he lied -- he had been there. He went, he testified, because he was in such desperate need of drugs that he was planning to rob his drug dealer, who lived doors away from Lauck. Instead, he went to Lauck's home first.

"I hoped that (Lauck) was home," Davis said, "so that I could borrow some" money.

Lauck's brutally beaten, stabbed body was found in his basement, a rope around its neck.

Davis had no money Aug. 18 but had $70 the next day when he repaid a drug debt to his dealer, who testified against Davis. He didn't get the money by robbing and killing Lauck, Davis said, but by cheating a heroin dealer in his neighborhood.