Charlotte Woman Sentenced To 10 Years In Murder-For-Hire Plot Against Her Ex-Husband

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A federal judge today handed down a 120-month prison term to a Charlotte woman convicted of a murder-for-hire plot against her ex-husband, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  Fathia Davis, a/k/a Fathia-Anna Davis, 48, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release.  U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. presided over the sentencing.  Judge Conrad also ordered Davis to undergo mental health treatment. 

U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by C.J. Hyman, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division and Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department.

“Fathia Davis was willing to pay someone to take the life of another human being, and even though she had plenty of opportunities to change her mind, she never did.  Instead, she made sure the men she hired to carry out the murderous plot knew who the victim was and then tried to cover up her role in orchestrating this horrendous crime.  Thanks to a concerned citizen and great law enforcement coordination Davis’s true, calculated and menacing behavior was discovered, a life was spared, and now Davis will spend the next 10 years behind bars for the crime she committed, said U.S. Attorney Rose.

“Today’s sentence is a result of our proactive efforts to reduce violent crime in our communities.  In this case, law enforcement was able to prevent the tragic loss of human life.  We will continue to work closely with CMPD to apprehend and prosecute those who choose to commit heinous crimes like this,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Hyman.

According to filed court documents, evidence presented at Davis’s trial and statements made during the sentencing hearing:

On or about January 2015, a concerned citizen informed law enforcement that Davis had asked him repeatedly to find her someone she could hire to kill her ex-husband.  On February 15, 2015, undercover officers posing as potential hitmen met Davis in a parking lot in Charlotte.  During that meeting, Davis agreed to pay the undercover officers $4,000 to shoot her ex-husband in the head.  Davis drove with the undercover officers to the victim’s residence and pointed out his apartment and vehicles.  Davis also told the officers that the victim had visitation with their daughter that week, and indicated that she was willing to have the victim killed during that time. Davis further told the officers that she wanted the victim out of her and her daughter’s lives, and that she had been trying for the last two years. 

Using a prepaid cell phone, Davis set up a meeting on February 22, 2015, with undercover officers and gave them $500 as a down-payment for the murder.  Davis told the officers that she had asked a friend withdraw the money from the bank so “it wouldn’t look funny.”  Davis also told the undercover officers that she would give them the rest of the money after they had killed her ex-husband.  The undercover officers told Davis that they would complete the job the following week and that she had until then to change her mind, to which she responded that she knew it was final.

On February 24, 2015, Davis met with the undercover officers and paid them $3,500 in cash after they told her that her ex-husband had been murdered.  Davis asked the undercover officers where the murdered had happened and expressed no emotion.  At the same meeting, the undercover men asked Davis to hand them the prepaid cell phone she had used to communicate with them.  Davis did not want to hand over the phone and told them that a friend of hers was going to get rid of it.  Davis reluctantly gave the phone to the undercover officers when they told her that they would break the phone.

On June 16, 2015, a federal jury convicted Davis of one count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. 

In announcing today’s sentence, Judge Conrad said this was not a suggested crime and went on to say that this is not the first time that Davis had tried to kill a human being, noting that he believed the defendant tried to poison her ex-husband on a previous occasion. Judge Conrad also said that, “Ms. Davis was very serious about committing this crime,” and added that the crime was “Cold, calculated, intentional and the Court has to take that into account.” 

Davis has been in in federal custody since June 2015. Upon designation of a federal facility she will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

ATF and CMPD investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Gleason and Jennifer Dillon prosecuted the case.