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Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1999

Trooper's killer gets death

Rap music blamed for state trooper's death

By JENNIFER STUMP
Staff Writer

   A man who blamed rap music for inciting him to kill a state trooper received the death penalty Tuesday at his retrial.
   Jurors took an hour and a half to sentence 25-year-old Ronald Ray Howard for shooting Department of Public Safety Trooper Bill Davidson in the neck on April 11, 1992, at a weigh station near Edna.
   A courtroom full of DPS officers hugged Davidson's widow, Linda, as she wiped away tears.
   "It's a step closer to closure," she said. "The only closure will come when he's put to death."
   Howard was driving a stolen car, listening to the song "Cop Killer" by gangster rapper Tupak Shakur and had marijuana and cocaine in his system when Davidson pulled him over for having a broken headlight, according to court testimony.
   Howard received the death penalty at his first trial in 1993. Jurors deliberated for a week in that case. The death sentence -- but not the capital murder conviction -- was thrown out by an appeals court because of a problem with jury selection.
   The case was moved from Jackson County to Nueces County in an effort to ensure a fair trial because of publicity.
   Defense attorneys had asked jurors to consider their client's background and let him serve a life sentence.
   Howard wasn't a bad youth, but grew up in a tough Houston neighborhood where guns ruled the streets, police harassed residents and youths idolized gangster rappers, Houston attorney Allen Tanner said. Howard had no juvenile record and one conviction for car theft before the shooting.
   "If not for that music pounding, do you think he would have killed that officer?" Tanner asked.
   Howard owned 500 to 600 gangster rap tapes and often told friends he would kill a police officer someday. "He constantly listened to gangster rap music. Constantly," Tanner said. "Always had the volume up. He was a nut."
   But prosecutors said Howard was a drug dealer and gang member who had six children with four different women by the time he killed Davidson.
   "Society is going to pay forever for Ronald Ray Howard," Jackson County District Attorney Robert E. "Bobby" Bell.
   Witnesses testified that Howard had bragged about carjacking and was known as Loco Ron to his fellow gang members. Bell said Howard was trying to elevate his status in the Crips gang by committing the ultimate act of violence -- killing a police officer.
   Howard shot Davidson at point-blank range, then drove off and led police on a high-speed chase for 14 miles before he smashed the car and took off running, Bell said. He was caught hiding in an apartment.
   Davidson, a former Edna city councilman and the president of the local Little League program, died three days later. While he was collapsed on the street bleeding, he gave officers a description of Howard, asked if anybody was going after him and requested that someone call his wife.
   "It's been a very difficult time for us," said Kimberly Davidson, the victim's daughter.
   Staff writer Jennifer Stump can be reached at 886-3778, or by e-mail at stumpj@caller.com
   

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.