Duty, Death, Dishonor

This story originally aired on May 20, 2006.

At age 19, Richard Davis joined the military, following in his parent's footsteps. After serving in Bosnia, Richard re-enlisted and found himself at the forefront of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Just two days after his return to the United States, Richard mysteriously vanished. What happened to him only came to light months later.

Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on this case of duty, death and dishonor.

For Lanny and Remy Davis, sorting through their son's belongings is not just heartbreaking, it's baffling. That's because their son, Specialist Richard Davis, wasn't killed in Iraq. After returning home, he just disappeared, and no one Lanny has talked to seems to know why.

"I think everyone's lying. And I'll tell 'em that straight to their face. Everyone is lying," he says.

Davis grew up an Army brat in California, Kansas and Missouri. Being a soldier was in Richard's blood. His mother was an Army medic and his father, Lanny, spent 20 years in the Army, serving several tours in Korea and Vietnam as a military policeman. He saw combat many times, and suffered a permanent wound to his vocal cords.

In 1998, at age 19, Richard joined the family business and was sent to Bosnia for his first assignment.

"That's when they was opening these mass graves. And my son, of course, was there to witness this," Lanny recalls. "He had a lot of hurt in his eyes. He couldn't understand how humanity could be so cruel and mean. And I seen on his face he wasn't the same Richard anymore."

And yet in 2001, when his three-year tour was up, Richard re-enlisted and joined the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and moved to Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. He was assigned to B Company, and met the men who would be his brothers in arms, soldiers like Jacob Burgoyne

"Three-hundred-sixty-five days a year, you're a soldier. You know what you're there for — to represent your flag, represent your people, represent your corps," explains Burgoyne, who was one of B Company's top soldiers.

Burgoyne, a gunner, says, "I liked the fast moving pace, I liked the attitude. I liked being in the uniform, looking good, standing tall and having people under me."

"I love the Army. It's like becoming part of the family," says Mario Navarette, who joined the Company in 2002. "My job, I was a dismount. I was riding on a Bradley, which is a fighting vehicle that carries personnel."

"I had a feeling that eventually something would happen in the Middle East, I mean it's a volatile area, been like that for thousands of years. Eventually we'd go there," remembers Douglas Woodcoff, who volunteered for the Army after Sept. 11.

Soon enough, they did head to the Middle East. On March 20, 2003, the invasion of Iraq began and B Company took the lead.

The company saw a lot of action on the road to Baghdad but the fiercest battles happened when they reached the capital. "There was blood everywhere," Navarette remembers. "You see people dying left and right. And that was very, very scary."

In the thick of it was Richard Davis, and Navarette says Davis was excited and not showing any sign of fear. Richard was also acquiring a reputation for being incredibly inventive.

"He had found, you know, a little head type nozzle and some old five-gallon water canteen, jug type of deals. And some old PVC pipe and made a little shower," recalls Woodcoff.

The device, Woodcoff said, was so popular that there was an hour or two wait just to take a two minute shower.

But as the weeks in Iraq wore on, the stress on the company was growing. And Richard's behavior, according to some soldiers, was becoming erratic and even dangerous.

"When we were supposed to be doing a job he wouldn't do it," says Woodcoff.

Richard's troubles seemed to come to a head one night in Baghdad when he came to company medic Edward Wulff, his hand bleeding from a knife wound.

Richard claimed two soldiers, Mario Navarette and Alberto Martinez, had cut his hand open.

Wulff says Richard also told him the soldiers had hit him several times.

But Navarette says the wound was self-inflicted, and just one more example of Richard's increasingly strange behavior.

"All of a sudden, Davis jumps up and says 'Make a pact, become blood brothers,' " he says. "I remember cutting our hands, and Davis cut his hand on top."

Regardless of what really happened that night, on May 20, Richard made a desperate phone call to his parents.

"He said he didn't have a safe place to lay his head. He's tired of looking out for himself," Lanny recalls.

But Lanny didn't think Richard was scared of the enemy. "I think he was talking about his own people, his own soldiers, the comrades that he was afraid of. He was crying. And he was begging me, 'Dad, can't you get me out of here.' "

Lanny says it was the first time he heard his son cry or beg for anything. It was also the last time he would ever hear from his son.

In that last phone call to his parents, Richard was distraught, but wouldn't say why. Lanny knew some of his son's comrades considered him eccentric, and now he wondered if Richard was being threatened by them.

"Does that make any sense to you that he'd be afraid of his own fellow soldiers?" Moriarty asks Davis.

"Yes, it does. A lot of people picked on my son. Even in the military," he replies.

But Richard hung up without explanation. He spent two more months in the Middle East without calling again. And even when he touched down on U.S. soil on July 13, 2003, he didn't phone home. Richard's friend and comrade Justin Harris wasn't surprised, and says this was part of his plan.

"He was gonna come home from the war, he had his Class As all fixed up with his new ribbons and he was gonna go fly to Missouri and knock on his parents' door and surprise them."

But on his second afternoon back from the war, Richard wasn't thinking about going home. He was going out on the town, with four other soldiers, Douglas Woodcoff, Alberto Martinez, Mario Navarette and Jacob Burgoyne.

"We all went together to get somethin' to eat. Went out to Hooters," Burgoyne recalls. "It was spur of the moment. We're all happy bein' back. I mean, everybody's gung ho, everybody wants to go out with everybody."

"We didn't believe that we were actually in the States and we were actually drinking and eating chicken wings. But it was a wonderful feeling that we were all together again," remembers Navarette.

After drinking beer for several hours at the restaurant, the group drove to a strip club, where Navarette says they had more drinks and played pool.

It was at this point, say the others, that Richard began acting strangely.

"He was being rowdy and he was being insultive to one of the women," claims Burgoyne.

And Navarette says Davis was making odd gestures towards one of the dancers.

Woodcoff says Davis was "very drunk" at that point and the bouncer "told us, referring to Davis, that he had too much to drink and he was starting to pass out at the bar. So Martinez and myself took him out to the car and put him in the back seat so he can sleep. Went back inside."

The other four soldiers continued to drink for about another hour, but then left abruptly. Burgoyne and Navarette apparently believed they had been kicked out of the club because of Richard's behavior.

But Woodcoff disagrees. "I think Martinez told them that to get them to leave."

When he got to the car, Burgoyne went after Richard, and admits that he hit him a few times and that Richard didn't hit back. Afterwards, Woodcoff says everyone got back in the car, and he thought they were driving back to the barracks.

It was around midnight when the five soldiers drove off in Alberto Martinez' car. At formation the next day, they all reported for duty, except Richard. The Army didn't initiate an official search but listed Richard as AWOL, absent without leave. And the four soldiers who were with Richard weren't asked any questions.

"We tried numerous calls down there. And all we could get from the unit at the time was, 'We're looking for him,' " remembers Lanny.

Lanny and Remy were very worried, because they say it didn't sound like their son to go AWOL.

By mid-August, Richard had been missing for a month, and Lanny headed off to Georgia to search for his son himself. "I kept hope that we'd find him, I'd find him. It wouldn't mattered if I got a lead to go to South America, I'd have went," he explains.

But when Lanny got to Fort Benning, he says it became clear no one was looking very hard for his son. That's when his old military policeman instincts kicked in. Lanny starting digging around, and soon made a significant discovery.

"If you're gonna go AWOL, number one, you gotta think about it at least for five minutes. And when you think about that, 'Well, I better bring some clothing. You know, I better bring my shaving gear or my toothbrush or my medication, whatever it is,' " says Lanny.

Instead, Richard had taken nothing.

It wasn't until September, two months after Richard disappeared, that the Army finally opened an official investigation. The four soldiers still hadn't told anyone they were out with Richard the night he disappeared.

But, on Nov. 7, 2003, a tip came in that led to a gruesome discovery. Coroner James Dunnavant says Richard's remains were scattered in woods several miles from Fort Benning. They had been there for months.

All that was left of Richard were his bones, and Dunnavant says nicks and cuts on the bones indicated to investigators that Richard had been stabbed multiple times.

"He was stabbed in the head, neck and chest. Approximately 33 times," Dunnavant says. But those were the stab wounds his team could find; because all that was left of Richard was his bones, Dunnavant said he was sure Richard was stabbed more than 33 times.

Their worst fears now realized, Lanny and Remy finally brought Richard home to bury him. But the search for who killed their son was only beginning; Lanny is now convinced his son was the victim of premeditated murder.

"I can just hardly imagine about the fear he had," says Lanny.

The truth about what happened to Richard was still a secret months after he disappeared. The four soldiers who were with him had kept to themselves. And one of them, Jacob Burgoyne, told investigators he had last seen Richard alive. But Burgoyne then told his closest friend, Matt Thompson, a completely different story.

"He said, 'I got to tell you something. I don't know if I should, but it's bothering me,' " Thompson said.

In a drunken conversation with Thompson, Burgoyne made a startling revelation. "He said 'I know who did it to Davis. I know who killed Davis.' He said, 'I was there,' " Thompson says.

Burgoyne even told Thompson where Richard's body lay. Thompson says Burgoyne offered to take him to the body, near Columbus, Georgia, but Thompson wouldn't go.

However, he did make sure Burgoyne's secret was passed around and on November 7, 2003, Army investigators finally heard the story, and found Richard's remains.

Because the crime happened off the base, the Columbus Police Department took over. And the four soldiers who were last with Davis — Jacob Burgoyne, Alberto Martinez, Mario Navarette and Douglas Woodcoff — were charged with murder.

Detective Andrew Tyner says Alberto Martinez refused to talk. "And I attempted to interview Woodcoff, and he said 'I have no idea as to what you're talking about,' " he recalls.

But Det. Tyner had no trouble getting Burgoyne to talk about the night of July 14. Tyner says Burgoyne was very open, right from the beginning.

Burgoyne now admits the fight he started with Richard outside the strip club continued when the five soldiers drove away.

Burgoyne tells Moriarty that Martinez was driving, and that he pulled over in a wooded area miles from Fort Benning, and everyone got out.

"And that's when I thought, 'Well hell. We're gonna fight. We're gonna do it right here,' " Burgoyne explains.

Burgoyne says he started hitting Richard again. Richard asked Burgoyne to leave him alone and covered his face.

But what happened next, Burgoyne says, took him completely by surprise: Martinez pulled a knife. "And that's when Martinez came out and just — thump — stuck him right in his side. His left side," Burgoyne tells Moriarty.

Asked why, Burgoyne said Martinez didn't give an answer. After being stabbed, Burgoyne says Richard fell to the ground.

Navarette says he tried to intervene. "I'm like, 'Whoa, what are you doing Martinez? You can't do this, man. We got to get 'em to a hospital. We can still save him.' And he's like, 'Nah, man, he's gonna report us. If we take him to a hospital he's gonna report us and we're gonna get in trouble.' And I'm over here, I'm losing it. I'm telling Burgoyne, 'Please man, stop it,' " Navarette says.

"We started talking to him, and trying to plead with him," Burgoyne says.

"And then Burgoyne tells me, he grabs my shoulder and he said, 'Calm down. Promise me to calm down. I'll take care of this little brother. I'll talk to Martinez.' So I turned around and I walked towards the car," Navarette tells Moriarty.

Navarette claims he saw nothing of what happened next and Woodcoff claims he had drunkenly wandered away, and heard only a muffled argument. This left Burgoyne as the only witness.

"I looked around, I seen him on top of Davis, he hit him, he stuck him and he was hittin' him all in the back area in the kidney area and the lung area back in the back and the neck and skull area. He just started goin' on a rampage with him like I ain't never seen a man do. Never seen a man do that," Burgoyne says.

Asked what Richard was saying, Burgoyne says, "Said he had a family, screamin'. Said he had a family."

Burgoyne says he just stood there. "Last thing he said was he was dead. He was dead. He said it twice. And then I didn't hear no more sounds. Martinez kept stickin' him. Takin' his time just kept stickin' him and stickin' him and stickin' him. And he was puttin' the blade in and then churnin' it. That was it. It was over."

"You could've stopped him," Moriarty says. "You didn't even try."

"No," Burgoyne replies. "I explained to him verbally but not physically, no I didn't. Not when I saw his eyes. I saw the blood in his eyes and all you can do is see red. That was it. And he wanted to kill that guy. He wanted to. That was his thing. It scared the s--- outta me."

During Martinez' entire rampage, Burgoyne insists he was merely a bystander. It was only after Richard was dead that Burgoyne says he sprung into action.

"I grabbed his legs and Martinez grabbed his arms. I just moved him off into the brush about five feet," Burgoyne recalls.

Asked why he would help Martinez, Burgoyne said, "I just wanted to go home. I wanted to get outta there, get away from it."

Next, all four soldiers drove to a convenience store where Burgoyne bought lighter fluid. Then they drove back to the woods.

Burgoyne says he poured lighter fluid on Richard's body, lit a match, and then ran away.

Asked how he could do this, he says: "It was like I had no conscience. He was a dead body. It was like I had lost control and I wanted to get back and that was the only way to do it. And that's what I thought off the top of my head. 'Burn him.' "

A few nights later, Burgoyne, Martinez and Navarette went back to hide Richard's remains deeper in the woods.

The four soldiers then all went their separate ways until they were arrested nearly four months later, and Burgoyne gave police his statement.

When Lanny Davis heard what Burgoyne told police, he was furious. He says he doesn't buy the story that Martinez stabbed his son while the others simply stood by.

"That's the biggest crock of lies I ever heard in my life," Lanny says.

Asked what makes him think they're lying, Lanny says: "Because they're not afraid of Martinez. Martinez wasn't the ring leader. I think Burgoyne was."

Justin Harris, who served in the military with all four men arrested for Richard's murder, is also puzzled. He finds it hard to believe Martinez, who was married and a father and about to leave the Army, would commit such a crime.

"As far as I've known Martinez, a couple years, he never even got into a fight. I was surprised by the whole situation really. But as far as picking a person out of it … it wouldn't be Martinez," says Harris.

But Harris says Burgoyne's involvement isn't surprising at all. In fact, just before B Company deployed to Iraq in January 2003, Burgoyne had a confrontation with Richard at another strip club.

"Richard threw some change on the stage. And the lady that was on the stage took that offensive. And we ended up being asked to leave. And Burgoyne said, 'All I want to know is, who threw the change?' " Harris recalls. "And Richard raised his hand, almost instantly, and said, 'I did.' And when he said that, Burgoyne then started hitting him."

Harris says Burgoyne hit Richard pretty hard.

"So, hearing that Jake was involved in this event, whatever it was that ended up with the death of Richard Davis, isn't that surprising to you?" Moriarty asks Harris.

"Not really. It doesn't surprise me much at all," he replies.

But Burgoyne's mother, Billie Urban, never doubted her son or his story that Martinez alone stabbed Richard. What she could not understand is why Burgoyne would watch it all happen, and then cover it up.

"It's like it's another person, 'cause that's not something my son would do," she says.

But shortly after Burgoyne was arrested, Billie discovered medical records among his things that she says explain a lot about her son's actions that night. Soon after he left the war zone, Burgoyne reported that he thought he might hurt someone. Even more alarming, while in Kuwait about a week before the murder, he overdosed on prescription drugs.

Burgoyne tells Moriarty he tried to kill himself and ended up in a medical clinic, where he says he wanted to get help. "It scared me, really," he says.

Burgoyne was diagnosed with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and it was directed that he be monitored at all times, that he not carry weapons and that he report to the psychiatric unit when he returned to Fort Benning.

"Jake literally, for the most part, lived life on the edge physically and mentally he's capable of doing a lot of things," says Harris. "And when you have that type of soldier confront you with a problem, you better take action right away."

When Burgoyne arrived at Fort Benning, Billie was there to greet her son. She was surprised when he was immediately escorted to the psychiatric unit of the hospital. But he never saw a psychiatrist, he just spoke to one on the phone.

"And he told me, 'Look, you come back and show up Monday. Just promise me you'll be there.' And I said 'OK, I will,' " recalls Burgoyne.

Then Burgoyne was simply released without treatment. Four days later, Richard was murdered.

"The Army just said, well, 'OK, call us Monday and go ahead and have a good time,' in effect," says psychologist John Stuart Currie, who was hired by Burgoyne's attorney.

Currie says it was not a responsible way to handle someone like Burgoyne. "He should have been hospitalized in a locked unit," he says.

Lanny thinks Burgoyne is just making excuses, and that all four soldiers are guilty. For one, Lanny says he doesn't believe Burgoyne suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. "Let's say they all did have PTSD, there's still no excuse for murdering a man like that, like they murdered my son," he says.

As they prepare for the trial, prosecutors Stacey Jackson and Gray Conger make a pivotal decision: they believe Burgoyne's version of the story, and will argue that Martinez did all the stabbing. Proving that, however, wouldn't be easy.

"Our evidence against Martinez was very lacking at that point, so we wanted somebody to testify," says Conger.

There's no physical evidence that ties Martinez to the murder, so prosecutors need at least two of the others to testify against him. After months of negotiating, they get what they want, but not the two soldiers they were expecting.

Woodcoff is the first to agree to testify. Prosecutors then offer to drop the murder charges against Navarette in exchange for his testimony. Surprisingly he turns the deal down, which leaves prosecutors with the one option they had hoped to avoid—they must strike a deal with Burgoyne, the man who admits he started the attack against Richard that night.

"Were you at all concerned when you picked Burgoyne to make a deal with that you might be making a deal with the guy who did the actual stabbing?" Moriarty asks Jackson.

"I had no concern," Jackson replies.

Finally, on Jan. 23, 2006, in a Columbus, Ga., courthouse, Alberto Martinez and Mario Navarette go on trial for the murder of Richard Davis.

Prosecutors open their case forcefully, giving graphic details of the killing. But when Woodcoff takes the stand, he can't say he actually witnessed Martinez do the stabbing.

"I saw Mr. Martinez kneeling or squatting and swinging," Woodcoff testifies. Asked if there was a human down there, he tells the court, "I did not see one. The grass is very tall."

Prosecutors are now completely dependent on Burgoyne's testimony.

Asked by Prosecutor Jackson what happened after Davis fell to the ground, Burgoyne testifies: "Navarette was talking to Martinez saying, 'You can't do it. You can't do it.' And I was looking at Davis. And I saw his shirt torn with a little hole in the side. And there was some blood on there. And I looked at Martinez. And I knew he just had the knife in his hand."

Meanwhile, the defense buys none of Burgoyne's story. Martinez' attorney Bob Wadkins tries to convince the jury that the prosecution's star witness, Jacob Burgoyne, is the real killer.

Confronted by the defense attorney, Burgoyne maintains he did not stab or kill Richard. "I was mad at him but I didn't have no knife or anything to stab him with," he testifies.

Burgoyne holds his own on the stand and he doesn't let anyone off the hook. "I know who the killer is, I know who is involved, I know my part in it, I'm just as guilty. I'm guilty just like everyone up here is guilty. Everyone here is guilty," he testifies.

Once the prosecution rests, Navarette unexpectedly takes the stand in his own defense and immediately regrets it.

"On that night while only a few feet from where Davis was stabbed 33 times, you want this jury to believe you didn't see who stabbed Davis?" Jackson asks.

"I did not see or hear anything. Because I was in the car crying like a little girl, and I didn't see what was going on," Navarette responds on the stand.

Martinez never utters a word, and the case goes to the jury.

After only two and a half hours, the jurors return with their verdicts, finding Martinez and Navarette guilty of murdering Richard Davis. The two men are sentenced to life in prison immediately.

But Richard's parents' ordeal isn't over yet. Three days later, they are back in court for the sentencing of Burgoyne, who had already pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Lanny wasn't allowed to address the court when Martinez and Navarette were sentenced. But now, he finally gets his chance.

Facing Burgoyne, Lanny says on the stand: "I wanna look at his face. You murdered my son. I don't forgive you. You're nothing but a cold blooded, dirty murderer. The Lord himself doesn't forgive people like you. Whatever demon you worship won't forgive you. There's not a name in this world that's bad enough for you. If I had my way, you wouldn't be sitting here right now. You're lucky I can't get my hands on you."

Under the terms of Burgoyne's plea deal, the judge has the right to give him the maximum sentence, which he does: 20 years in prison.

The ordeal devastates Burgoyne's mother, Billie Urban. "I wish I could bring back their son. It's just changed everybody's lives, you know? We won't forget it," she says.

The following week, Woodcoff pleads guilty to concealing a death and is sentenced to five years of probation.

The Richard Davis case is now closed, but the trial failed to answer one crucial question. In fact, it barely came up at all: why was Richard murdered?

At this point, only one man may know. Although Alberto Martinez wouldn't talk to 48 Hours, he did talk to Mario Navarette but didn't say much.

"When I asked, he has no explanation. He told me he didn't do it," Navarette tells Moriarty.

And Woodcoff also says he doesn't know why Martinez stabbed Richard.

Incredibly, both Woodcoff and Burgoyne claim they never even asked him.

"I didn't wanna say nothin' more to that man," says Burgoyne.

But Lanny Davis thinks he may know the reason. In an article about Richard's murder published in May 2004, Playboy magazine reported that Martinez and Navarette were alleged to have raped a young Iraqi woman while guarding a mall, and that Richard might have known about it.

"I believe that what he might have seen over there, whether it was a rape or some other atrocities, I believe that he probably reported that. There's no way I can prove that, but knowing my son, he would say something," says Lanny.

An Army investigation launched after the article was published found no evidence of rape, but it did find that some soldiers paid for sex with Iraqi women. Douglas Woodcoff says this was common knowledge, and that he did not think Richard's murder had anything to do with it.

However, Woodcoff does think there could be a connection between their combat experiences in Iraq and Richard's brutal murder so soon after they returned.

"There could be an elaborate reason, or it could be just cause," he says.

"Just cause? It seems too violent," Moriarty remarks.

"It does seem too violent. But we were only back for a couple days at the most," says Woodcoff. "And coming from a battle zone where you solved your problems with violence."

"I mean that's how war is. You train and train to hone your skills to gain the knowledge you need to kill. But then, when it's done, people aren't looking at the other side," says Burgoyne.

"Do you think that's what was going on? That Martinez was acting in the same way as he would have in Iraq?" Moriarty asks Woodcoff.

"It could have been," he replies.

What drove Martinez to kill that night may always be a mystery, but there is evidence that this war is taking a psychological toll on soldiers. One recent Army study found that nearly one in five Iraq war veterans reported mental health problems, and another study recommended better counseling.

"Nobody ever sat down in a room, one on one, and talked about what we went through and what was going on in our minds," says Navarette.

Ironically, on the very night Richard was murdered, Woodcoff was still worried about his post-war state of mind. "That night I did distinctively remember before I started drinking, I didn't take a belt with me, a knife with me because I didn't want to take that chance of being put in the situation with me thinking I'm still in Iraq and taking it out on a local," he explains.

The Army refused to comment on any aspect of the Richard Davis case, or how they deal with the issues facing soldiers returning from Iraq, including Jacob Burgoyne. Instead, they released a short statement to 48 Hours, saying they mourn Richard's loss, and are grateful that those responsible for his murder have been bought to justice.

As soldiers from Richard's unit train for a third deployment to Iraq, Lanny continues to mourn for a soldier who will never fight again, and who will never come home.

"I keep hoping he's alive," Lanny says. "That might sound funny but I just sort of hope all this has been a bad dream."

Alberto Martinez is appealing his conviction. Martinez claims he suffered from post traumatic stress and his lawyers never presented that at trial.
Produced by Paul Ryan/Daria Hirsch