Gervonta Davis sentenced to 90 days at home in hit-and-run plea
Also 3 years probation, 200 hours of community service but no jail
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Gervonta Davis was sentenced to 90 days of home confinement in his hometown of Baltimore followed by three years of probation at his sentencing hearing on Friday for a 2020 hit-and-run incident that injured four people, including a pregnant woman.
Davis, who now lives in South Florida, will serve the home detention at the house of his career-long trainer and mentor Calvin Ford, according to the Baltimore Banner.
Davis, 28, who has won belts in three weight classes and is the current WBA “regular” lightweight titleholder, also must complete 200 hours of community service in Baltimore County.
The sentencing came just 13 days after Davis, one of boxing’s biggest stars, scored the most significant win of his career, a seventh-round knockout of then-unbeaten fellow star Ryan Garcia in the main event of a Showtime PPV card that generated 1.2 million buys and sold $22.8 million in tickets to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas — the fifth-highest gate in Nevada boxing history.
As part of a plea deal just as his trial was about to begin, Davis pleaded guilty to four of 14 charges, including one felony, on Feb. 16: leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failure to locate and notify an owner of unattended property damage, driving with a revoked license and failure to stop at a red light.
Davis left that hearing with no punishment having been agreed upon and with the sentencing scheduled for Friday. That allowed Davis to take part in the fight with Garcia, by far the biggest boxing event so far this year.
Davis (29-0, 27 KOs), who has had numerous legal issues through the years, pleaded guilty in relation to a Nov. 5, 2020 incident in which he left the scene of a car accident after driving a 2020 Lamborghini Uris SUV through a red light and hit the passenger side of another car, injuring the four people.
Davis, who had a suspended license at the time of the incident, appeared for the sentencing before Baltimore Circuit Judge Althea M. Handy at the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse at 2 p.m. ET. According to the Baltimore Banner, Handy ripped into Davis for his refusal to apologize to one of the crash victims, Jyair Smith.
“Three words: ‘I am sorry,’” Handy said to Davis, according to the Banner. “And he was not man enough to do that … He’s shown absolutely no remorse.”
Had Davis been convicted on all 14 initial counts he faced a maximum of 50 months in prison.
Previously, Davis’ attorney and the Baltimore City State Attorney's Office agreed to a plea agreement in September that would have seen Davis avoid jail time and serve 60 days of house arrest. However, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn declined to approve the plea arrangement because there was no jail time associated with it and she was moved by Smith’s testimony.
Smith, who was pregnant at the time of the accident and suffered a serious knee injury, opposed the deal, telling the court that Davis looked right into her eyes and even though she pleaded for help, Davis instead left the scene without offering any assistance.
Davis has reached financial settlements with three of the crash victims but Smith is suing him.
Davis faces another court date on May 26 in Broward County, Florida, in a domestic violence case. He has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge stemming from a Dec. 27 incident in Parkland, Florida, in which Vanessa Posso, the mother of one of his daughters, accused him of striking her.
She frantically called 911 and Davis was arrested and spent a night in jail while he was in training camp for a Jan. 7 title defense against Hector Luis Garcia, whom he knocked out in the ninth round at sold-out Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Posso later recanted her story and told the court she would not testify against Davis, who is unlikely to face any punishment for the incident.
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Davis photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC
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Hard to see Gervonta’s behaviour improving when he never feels any consequences for his actions.
He is a lucky guy now the Haney fight at the end of the year