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The prosecutor who handled Davis' case is not so sure. Marci Trageser, an assistant district attorney in Lee County, says if the laws had been tougher, Davis could have gotten more prison time.

After his release in the spring of 2001, Davis fathered two boys.

Both were shaken so badly doctors doubt they'll ever fully recover. Davis is back in prison for abusing one of those sons.

Loss of control

Lyiah Davis' mother, Sabrina Sanders, worked the dinner shift at a restaurant in Durham the night her daughter was shaken. She left 5-month-old Lyiah and another daughter, 18 months old, with Louis Lee Davis.

Davis later told investigators that he had settled in front of the TV to watch the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers play basketball. About 9 p.m., Lyiah started getting fussy, so he gave her a bottle and tucked her into his double bed. Just before 11 p.m., he said, he poked his head in the room to check on her. She wasn't breathing. He ran to a neighbor's house and called for help.

By the time paramedics arrived, Lyiah lay lifeless on the bed. For 10 minutes, they tried to revive her. They hooked her to a ventilator and rushed her to Central Carolina Hospital. Doctors declared her dead that night.

An autopsy showed a dozen healing rib fractures, evidence that Lyiah had been abused before.

Trageser, the prosecutor, said Davis took the blame for Lyiah's death at a hearing in April 2000. Davis, then 25, told a judge he had lost control while baby-sitting, Trageser recalled. She agreed to let Davis plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, an unlawful killing without malice or intent.

Davis had spent nearly a year in the Lee County jail awaiting trial. After his plea, he was out of prison in little more than a year.

Trageser said she bargained because she feared a jury would not convict Davis of murder.

"We didn't feel that we had the mom in our corner, and I didn't feel comfortable going into the courtroom not knowing what she'd say," she said. "Knowing what I know now, I would have risked it."

After Davis finished his prison sentence, Lyiah's mother, Sanders, welcomed him back, said Davis' aunt, Charline McLean. The couple moved to Harnett County for a fresh start, McLean said, and they had a baby boy, Trey, in January 2002.

Sanders couldn't be reached. Letters left at her listed addresses in Raleigh went unanswered.

In March 2002, Sanders rushed Trey, then 6 weeks, to WakeMed in Raleigh after he had a seizure. Doctors diagnosed shaken baby syndrome, Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins said. That night, social workers snapped pictures of the gaunt infant strapped to a maze of tubes and wires.

Detectives immediately suspected Davis of shaking Trey, Rollins said. But they couldn't rule out two other adults. Sanders and a cousin also had access to Trey during the time doctors think he was abused. Sanders and the cousin passed lie detector tests, Rollins said. Davis refused to take one.

"All clues pointed to him, but you can't go to court on a gut feeling," Rollins said.

Harnett County Social Services put Trey in foster care after the shaking. A judge later terminated Davis' and Sanders' parental rights.

Cycle of abuse

In spring 2002, Davis met Lydia Quick in the checkout line of a Food Lion in Sanford. She was having a rough day, and he made her laugh, said Quick, 27, who now lives in Lumberton. Davis had split from Sanders by then, Quick said.

Davis and Quick set up house on a rural highway outside Sanford. In March 2004, she gave birth to a son, Jordan.

Two months later, she left Jordan with Davis while she updated her resume at the county employment office. Later that night, as she tried to feed the baby a bottle, he wailed and arched his back. His arm and leg started jerking. Quick called her pediatrician, who urged her to take Jordan to UNC Hospitals.

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