“The verdict on this case came in late last night. Powell found guilty of first degree murder. This was a Major Case Squad case investigated in 2008 and commanded by Major Brad Wells of the Madison County Sheriff's Office.  Another great job by the MCS.”  Sheriff Robert J. Hertz, Madison County

BY ELIZABETH DONALD - News-Democrat

EDWARDSVILLE -- The image of a boy's homework spattered with his own blood preceded the guilty verdict that will send Marcus "Butterhead" Powell to prison for killing the boy as he wrote a letter to the school board.

During her closing argument, prosecutor Jennifer Vucich showed the jury the letter that DeLarrian Davis was writing to the Madison School Board on Oct. 7, 2008, when he was struck in the head by stray bullets. DeLarrian, age 12, was asking the board to reconsider a policy that only allows students to wear white or black shoes to his school.

"DeLarrian never wrote or spoke another sentence," Vucich said.

DeLarrian Davis in 2008. - Provided/BND

The rest of the page is blank, and splashed with DeLarrian's blood. He was struck by bullets fired into his Madison home that night and died immediately.

The prosecution said the shots were intended for DeLarrian's stepfather, Kevin "Goose" Campbell, who was having a long-running feud with Powell that had already caused several gun battles on the streets of Madison that evening.

The jury received the case at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and deliberated for about nine hours. They returned a guilty verdict on the charge of first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm.

Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons said it was obvious the jury gave "serious consideration to all the evidence."

Powell did not testify at the murder trial. He has already been convicted in federal court of dealing crack cocaine and has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Gibbons said his office would ask for the maximum of 60 years to run consecutively with the federal sentence. The firearm charge also carries a penalty of four to 15 years in prison.

"We want the absolute maximum considering (Powell's) extraordinary criminal history," Gibbons said. "He's been a menace for a long time."

Vucich said DeLarrian's stepfather was "a drug-dealing thug," and it was his war with Powell that cost the little boy his life.

"What should have been a shootout in the street between Goose and Butterhead ended in DeLarrian's murder," she said.

Defense attorney Mike Mettes, however, said that police homed in on Powell to the exclusion of other suspects, calling it "an investigation with blinders." He accused the Major Case Squad of lying to witnesses and suspects and manipulating them to get them to blame Powell.

"This was not an investigation as much as it was a lynching," Mettes said. "This was them going after Marcus Powell. ... The problem with the state's case is that it is based on lies."

Vucich recapped the ballistics of shell casings found at the various street shootings and at the house, the testimony of two jailhouse informants and eyewitnesses -- among them two of Powell's friends riding in the car that night -- who placed Powell at the scene. She also reminded them that the year before, Powell is believed to have shot DeLarrian's mother, Sophia Campbell. She was hit 12 times in the stomach and survived.

"This case is all about a clash between this defendant and Goose," Vucich said. "When he is confronted by Goose, he shoots, and when he can't get to Goose, he goes after his family. It's what he does."

Contact reporter Elizabeth Donald at edonald@bnd.com or 239-2501.

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2012/02/15/2060423/jury-finds-powell-guilty-in-killing.html?story_link=email_msg#storylink=cpy