Inmate charged with murder in fatal stabbing at Shawangunk prison

Staff and wire reports 02/21/2008

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Larry Davis

SHAWANGUNK - A suspected murderer who gained notoriety after a 1986 shootout with police in the Bronx has been killed at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County, corrections officials said on Thursday.

The suspected assailant, also an inmate, was apprehended at the scene and later charged with first-degree murder, police said.

Larry Davis, serving 25 years to life on a murder conviction in an unrelated case, was stabbed to death around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday during a recreational break at the Shawangunk prison, said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

Davis was stabbed repeatedly with a 12-inch long, half-inch wide homemade metal shank in the arms, head, back, upper thigh and chest, Kriss said.

"I don't know what was happening at this exact moment," he said, adding that prison staff were in the yard when a fight broke out. "Things happen quickly."

(http://bannerads. zwire.com/ bannerads/ redirect. cfm?ADLOCATION= 4000&PAG= 461&BRD=1769) Davis gained notoriety after he was accused of trying to kill nine police officers who had come to arrest him at his sister's apartment on charges of killing five drug dealers. Six of the officers were wounded in the shootout while Davis escaped unhurt through a window, setting off a 17-day manhunt that involved hundreds of officers. He eventually surrendered to police.

During his trial two years later, he was defended by famed civil rights lawyer William Kunstler and his co-counsel, Lynne Stewart. The defense claimed Davis fired in self-defense and that the officers were out to get him because he had knowledge of police corruption.

A jury acquitted him of attempted murder and aggravated assault. He instead was convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.

Davis, 41, had most recently been convicted in 1991 of fatally shooting a suspected drug dealer in the Bronx.

The inmate accused of stabbing Davis, Luis Rosado, apparently was unhurt in the fight. He was arraigned Thursday in Shawangunk Town Court on the first-degree murder charge and was returned to the custody of the Department of Correctional Services.

Davis became a hero to some - and a symbol of outrage to others, especially law enforcement - after the 1986 gunfight and his subsequent flight from the law. More than 1,500 officers demonstrated after the verdict was announced.

During the trial, Stewart argued passionately that Davis fired at the officers in self-defense. "Against all odds, Larry Davis, a son of the South Bronx, acted to save his life in the back bedroom of his sister's apartment," she said.

After he was acquitted of the most serious charges, Stewart said, "I really think that the black com-munity is no longer going to have black Sambos, they're going to have black Rambos."

In recent years, Stewart has been in the news as a defendant in a terrorism case. She was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on charges of helping an imprisoned terrorist sheik communicate with his disciples. She was found guilty in 2005 and has been free on bail while appealing the con-viction.