A West Virginia man has been found guilty of killing a Maine man on the side of a Pennsylvania highway more than five years ago.
Pennlive.com reports that a judge on Tuesday sentenced John Wayne Strawser, 41, of Terra Alta, West Virginia, to life in prison in connection with the shooting death of 28-year-old Timothy Davison of Poland. The trial began July 29, and closing arguments were made Tuesday.
Davison was returning home to Maine from visiting family in Florida on Jan. 2, 2014, when he called 911 to report that a dark colored Ford Ranger was chasing him from Maryland into Pennsylvania.
“This guy is firing shots at me,” Davison told a dispatcher about 2 a.m. Jan. 4, 2014.
His silver Mitsubishi Montero was forced off Interstate 81 into the median, and was shot multiple times — including in the left hand, right foot and head — and died later at a local hospital.
Prosecutors argued that Strawser had mistaken Davison’s Montero for a Honda Pilot owned by Jamie and Courtney Breese of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.
Courtney Breese told the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas last week that she grew up in the same West Virginia town as Strawser and had carried on an affair with him after they reconnected on Facebook. She later broke off that relationship.
She testified, according to the Herald-Mail Media, that the night of Davison’s shooting, she and her husband, Jamie, were returning home after visiting a nightclub in Bunker Hill, West Virginia, when Strawer began texting and calling her.
When Jamie Breese took the phone, Strawser allegedly threatened to kill him, Jamie Breese testified, according to the Chambersburg Public Opinion.
“I didn’t feel threatened because I’ve heard him mouth off so many times,” he told the court. “I told him ‘If you’re man enough to do it, then come and do it.’”
Pennsylvania State Police investigators said last week that they received 671 tips in the months following Davison’s killing, and had investigated at least three alternate suspects. It wasn’t until the Breeses came forward in 2015 that investigators put together enough to charge Strawser with first-degree murder in September 2015.
The couple came forward only after Strawser shot to death his girlfriend, 38-year-old Amy Lou Buckingham, in the driveway of her Tunnelton, West Virginia, home on April 15, 2015. Strawser was sentenced to life in prison in August 2016 for her killing.
[Couple says that man who allegedly shot to death a Mainer 5 years ago was looking for them]
Davison’s mother, Theresa Allocca, told the court last week that her son was a huge presence in her family, helping her with Jeep repairs, attending barbeques and playing disc golf, according to the Public Opinion.
Allocca said she and Davison often made trips to Florida to visit family during the holidays. In January 2014, Davison took a different route home to Maine, at the suggestion of his grandfather, to beat big-city traffic, according to the Public Opinion.
She said Davison’s nickname “Asti” was a reference to the family’s Italian heritage, meaning a “celebration of life,” the Public Opinion reports.
“Now that we have a guilty verdict, I want us all to move on. Here in your loving community, for our family and for our friends,” Pennlive.com quoted Allocca as saying after the verdict was delivered. “May people not live in fear, but in love.”
Related: Theresa Hemond talks about her friend Timothy Davison
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