GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A grand jury has indicted a Gainesville man on a charge of premeditated murder involving the fatal shooting of a man at an apartment complex near Oaks Mall over the summer. He is also accused of illegally trying to compel potential witnesses to alter their testimony in his case.
Michael Gregory Davis, 35, of Gainesville, was being held Tuesday in the county jail with no bond, ordered by Alachua County Court Judge Meshon Rawls. The grand jury indicted Davis on Monday on charges that he killed Calvin Leon Woodard Jr.
Davis’ public defender, William Miller, did not immediately return phone messages Tuesday. Davis could not be reached for comment because the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office does not permit defendants in jail to talk to reporters without written permission from their defense lawyers and a senior jail official.
Davis was due in court next on Nov. 15.
The sheriff's office arrested Davis on June 13 following an investigation, according to jail records. Deputies found Woodward with a gunshot wound to the chest at the scene of a reported shooting on June 11. He later died from his injury.
Davis was under instruction as part of his criminal case not to contact any witnesses or relatives of witnesses. Sheriff’s jailers said they overheard him on a phone call June 18 telling several people they needed to withdraw their statements. He was charged with witness tampering.
The sheriff’s office revoked his phone privileges after that incident.
Davis was arrested in 2012 and accused of punching a woman and throwing a hammer at her vehicle as she and friends drove away, but prosecutors dropped those felony charges when he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief charges.
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