Road rage siblings face murder trial

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A woman will stand trial for murder in the road-rage killing of Lance Byers, despite testimony from a key witness that she didn't mean to shoot him.

"She said it was an accident," said the witness, who owns the Lincoln Navigator used as a getaway car
in the Feb. 22 death.

"I said, 'What happened?' and she said she was defending her brother and had shot somebody."

Jeannette Davis, 24, was ordered to stand trial on June 12 for second-degree murder and felony firearm after a hearing today in Grand Rapids District Court.  

Her brother, Jountay Davis, 21, waived his hearing and was ordered to stand trial for being an accessory.

Byers' co-workers from the state Department of Human Services sat behind prosecutors and police on
one side of the courtroom.

Family and friends of Jeannette Davis packed the other side of the courtroom, some wearing t-shirts pushing for her release.

She allegedly fired the shot that killed Byers after a road-rage incident on Lafayette Avenue and State Street SE in the Heritage Hill neighborhood.

A witness, Daniel Egel, testified he watched Byers and Davis's brother, Jountay Davis, face-off in the road after what appeared to be a minor fender bender.

Within moments, Byers and the brother were shoving each other. "I could see in their faces they had reached a breaking point," Egel said.

He saw the woman, who was a few feet away from the men, heard a pop, then saw the victim stumbling toward his car. The other man and woman then fled in the Navigator.

The owner of the Navigator was forced to testify against her will. She is the mother of Jountay Davis's 6-week-old son and lives in Kentwood.

She said Jeannette and Jountay Davis were upset when they showed up at her home that morning, saying
they'd been in an accident and somebody had been shot.

She said she pressed Jeannette for details.

The woman said Jeannette Davis told her she didn't mean to shoot the victim.

"She said she wasn't aiming at him, she was trying to scare him; she didn't mean to shoot him."

A short time later, a relative called after watching the news about the shooting and about the search for the black truck. That, she said, is when they found out a man had died.

The woman said she then parked her Navigator in the garage because it was raining and a car window  was broken.