Hercule & Aunt Jane on Andrew Davenport

Has anyone noticed how many recent murders have taken place in or been committed by residents from the Colbert Heights area just south of Tuscumbia? Much of this area is in the Tuscumbia police jurisdiction, but not all. It would be interesting to see a map of these crimes.

What brought up this line of thought? We've been surprised by the amount of interest the Andrew Davenport case has generated in contrast to the James Tabor case. Both men lived on Colburn Mountain Road just south of Tuscumbia and north of Littleville. By tabloid standards, Tabor's murder of his roommate makes much more interesting reading; it's a case we would expect to see featured in the Daily Mail. Yet Andrew Davenport's shooting of a young Muscle Shoals woman is the murder our readers are discussing.

We've had two locals weigh in on Andrew Davenport, and for obvious reasons we're going to call them Hercule and Aunt Jane. First, from Hercule, a homicide detective not connected to the Muscle Shoals police force:

"He didn't have any record? Family says super nice guy? You usually hear those things about a psychopath when he snaps."

Next, from Aunt Jane, an area mystery writer:

"I'm thinking he didn't intend to kill her. He had argued with her earlier in the evening and apparently hadn't got his point across. He took the gun to get her attention, but when she still wouldn't listen to him, he fired the gun. I haven't seen where a wound location has been mentioned, so I'm thinking he intended to shoot either close to her or shoot her in the leg, and things went horribly wrong."

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We've also been asked why shooting into an occupied building makes this a capital case. We infer it's because the shooter may be intending to kill one person, but has no real idea who else may be in the building. The interesting thing about the charge in the Streitmatter murder is the width of the garage door may be an asset to Andrew Davenport's defense. After all, he had a very plain view of his victim. We're looking forward to seeing if Bryce Graham will actually get his capital indictment in the case of the married father of two.