SJP- There was a lot when I googled news for him (go to
www.google.com, click "News" near the search box, enter his name in the new page that comes up- many VA results come up!) Here is one:
Some exerpts from this article:
Murder charge certified
Charge advances against Spotsylvania woman's boyfriend accused of killing her 3-year-old boy
By KEITH EPPS
Date published: 1/27/2005
Linette Davis thought her boyfriend was joking Sept. 29 when he told her that her 3-year-old son was missing.
"At least I was hoping that he was," a steadily sobbing Davis testified yesterday in Spotsylvania Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
It was no joke. Little Tyreek Davis is still missing and 46-year-old Herman Lee Black is in jail, charged with second-degree felony murder and felony child abuse.
Judge Joseph J. Ellis certified both charges to a Spotsylvania grand jury following a lengthy preliminary hearing yesterday.
Black lived with Linette Davis and her four children in a Caroline County motel. He is accused of killing Tyreek sometime between early morning of Sept. 29, when he left home with the boy, and early that afternoon when he told Davis the child was missing.
Though police still have no idea where the child is, Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely presented DNA and circumstantial evidence tying Black to the crime.
The most striking DNA came from the shirt and jeans Black was wearing when he was taken into custody that afternoon. The FBI Laboratory at Quantico Marine Corps Base has determined that the blood on the clothes came from Tyreek.
Linette Davis testified yesterday that she had washed those same clothes the day before Tyreek disappeared.
The circumstantial evidence included Black's own conflicting stories and testimony from his brother.
Harold W. Black, 49, testified that a few days after the child's disappearance, he noticed that a moving pad and a 30-gallon plastic barrel were missing from his garage.
Herman Black had reportedly gone to his brother's property on Granite Springs Road in western Spotsylvania the day of the disappearance to cut wood.
Defense attorney Allen Bareford tried mightily to have the DNA evidence thrown out. He argued that information in an affidavit for a search warrant for DNA from Black was "woefully insufficient" and that the search warrant should not have been granted.
Ellis disagreed, and denied Bareford's motion to have the DNA evidence suppressed.
Davis testified, saying she got up that morning planning to take Tyreek with her to her brother's bond hearing in Stafford County.
Instead, she said, Black volunteered to take the child known as "Pa Pa" with him on his wood-cutting job in Spotsylvania. It was the only time Tyreek had been left alone with Black, she said.
Davis said she called Black several times after getting out of court about 11 a.m. On the third call, Black broke the news to her that Tyreek was missing.
He then gave her the same story that he later gave police, Davis testified. She said Black described going to the Central Park Wal-Mart to get a spark plug for his woodsplitter, leaving the sleeping child in his truck.
When he returned to the truck, according to the story, the child was gone.
Police soon found problems with Black's first story. Surveillance cameras at Wal-Mart showed Black's truck parked right outside the store before he went inside--and Tyreek was not in it.
A few days later, Black changed his story. The new one involved smoking marijuana and accidentally leaving the child at the work site while he went to Wal-Mart.
He told police he last saw the child on a truck trailer eating a "pickle loaf," Detective Troy Skebo said.
Black later gave a third story, saying Tyreek fell twice while riding to the work site but was not injured. He continued to claim that the child was left at the work site, according to testimony.
DNA evidence showed that Tyreek, who was not potty trained, urinated in Black's vehicle at some point.
Neely said the prosecution theory is that Black reacted angrily to that mishap and hurt the child badly. He then wrapped his body in the moving pad and dumped it, according to the theory, before concocting a "steady stream of lies."