Father Ruled Competent in Abuse Case

A San Bernardino County judge found Friday that John “Rajohn Lord” Davis, patriarch of the Twentynine Palms family accused of murdering one child and keeping two others chained and isolated from the civilized world, is mentally competent to stand trial.

Superior Court Judge James McGuire made his decision after two doctors assigned to the case completed mental evaluations of Davis and agreed that he is competent. McGuire was forced to confront the issue after Davis’ defense attorney, who could not be reached for comment Friday, questioned whether his client could stand trial.

San Bernardino County Assistant Dist. Atty. Rod Cortez said Friday that, after the reports came in, the two sides agreed on the question. “The doctors found he was competent. [The defense] did not challenge that. They stipulated to the doctors’ findings, as did I.”

Davis, who has declared his innocence in interviews, appeared in court for the brief hearing in Joshua Tree but did not speak. Davis, his wife, Carrie Lee Davis, and another woman who lived with the family, Faye Potts, are tentatively scheduled to go to trial in April.

The three, who are being held in lieu of $2-million bail each, are charged with murder, torture, child abuse and false imprisonment. Cortez said he plans to seek the maximum punishment if they are convicted: three consecutive life terms in prison.

“We would ask for the maximum under the law,” he said.

Deputies arrested the adults in October after the Davises’ older son, 17-year-old Yahweh, called 911 to say that he and his brother, 12-year-old Angel, were being chained and held prisoner in their family home. The fenced, camouflaged compound, decorated with a series of hand-painted religious posters, is in a remote desert community known as Wonder Valley, northeast of Twentynine Palms.

Investigators say the boys, who had never been to school or a doctor, were hidden from the outside world. They bore the marks of chains and whips when they were discovered, and were drastically underdeveloped.

Prosecutors later added murder charges after evidence emerged that a third Davis child died 10 years ago.

Though investigators have never found a body, they filed the murder charges last fall after uncovering evidence that the boys’ parents had hidden his existence.