PPHG Trial

Ex-defendant now a witness

Renounces gang life on stand at Mynisha trial
Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/15/2008 08:51:39 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO - After spending more than two years in jail, Shawn Davis has disavowed his hardened street life and feels remorse for his role in the death of Mynisha Crenshaw, he testified Thursday.
The 11-year-old girl was fatally shot in November 2005 when a group of armed men sprayed gunfire into her San Bernardino apartment while her family was having dinner.

In the middle of the following year, Davis acknowledged his wrongs, and he turned his life around, he testified during a re-trial for Sidikiba Greenwood and Harold Phillips in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Now a witness in the Mynisha case, Davis used words like "ignorant" and "stupid" to describe the work he put in for the gang with beatings, robberies and shootings.

He would change the past if he could, he said.

Despite any possible backlash or threats, Davis said he wants to see some good come from his testimony.

Most important, he says, is "to bring justice for the family of Mynisha Crenshaw."

Davis, one of the 12 defendants charged in the girl's death, testified that he left the scene before weapons were fired into Mynisha's apartment.

Prosecutors say the gang was in the area near Mountain Avenue and Citrus Place on Nov. 13, 2005, to hunt down members of a rival gang they believed had killed one of their own - a cousin of Davis named Barry Jones - four days earlier.

In March 2006, Davis took a plea bargain, and in the next year wrote

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a letter to a Superior Court judge and Mynisha's family apologizing and taking responsibility.
"I knew it wouldn't change anything or make her feel any different - she lost a child," Davis said. But he wants others to know he felt remorse.

Under hours of questioning from defense lawyers for Greenwood and Phillips on Thursday, Davis appeared to forget many of the details he told police about the shooting and about his past.

"It's been so long," Davis told lawyer John Aquilina, who represents Phillips.

Also on Thursday, Judge Brian McCarville denied the prosecution's request to show a video to jurors of Hood Day celebrated by the Pimps, Players, Hustlers and Gangster Crips at a local park on April 4, 2004.

The party-style video showed many young men, including some of the defendants, flashing gang signs and wearing clothing synonymous with the gang. In it, Greenwood is called the "Godfather."

But the judge said the video's amateurish recording style would have made it difficult for jurors to watch. The defense called the recording prejudicial to their clients.

A jury deadlocked on most of the charges against the defendants in the first trial in fall 2006 in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

Two other defendants, Michael Barnett Jr. and Sinque Morrison, still await a retrial. Eight other defendants, including Davis, have taken plea bargains.