Woman guilty in revenge attack

By Amanda Kerr | The Virginia Gazette

May 3, 2008

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YORK - Alleged rape, pagan rituals and conspiracy to commit murder were at the heart of Thursday’s trial of a 43-year-old woman who organized last fall’s brutal attack on a man she claimed raped her and her teenage daughter.

Prosecutors argued that while Terisa Davidson did not actually participate in the September 2007 attack on 32-year-old Jonathan Barron, she did supply the motivation and tools to carry out a vicious assault that left Barron beaten, stabbed, burned and injected with chemicals.

Davidson, the only suspect in the case who did not plead guilty, testified that she met Barron at the World Outreach Worship Center in Newport News two years ago.

Despite the Christian setting for their introduction, Davidson and Barron began attending a drum circle ceremony at a pagan shop in Norfolk called Mystic Moon. There they met Stephen Walters, Dianna Breznick and Aaron Meadors.

In accordance with pagan practices, the group called Davidson “Red Phoenix” and Barron “Lord Othis.”

Barron testified that he and Davidson started out as friends, then progressed to a consensual sexual relationship. Davidson was adamant that the sex was forced.

“It was rape,” she testified Thursday.

Davidson said her teenage daughter and an acquaintance also claimed that Barron had raped them. Davidson’s daughter later admitted she had not been assaulted.

In the weeks leading up to the assault on Barron, Davidson told a group of friends, including Breznick, Walters and Meadors, about the alleged rapes.

Commonwealth attorney Eileen Addison asserted that it was Davidson who coerced her friends into attacking Barron.

“This is a group of young people... being led by the passionate histrionics of an older, and in their eyes, much more powerful mother figure,” Addison said. “They got carried away because she encouraged them to do so.

“This was a plan motivated by her,” Addison said. “She gave them the instruments and motivation to do it.”

Breznick testified that Davidson said she wanted Barron to die.

Davidson denied any involvement in the plan. “I did not say I wanted him dead,” she countered. “I said I wanted him to be gone and out of my life.”

Breznick said it was Davidson who suggested the group inject Barron with silver thermal compound and barbicide. She claimed Davidson gave them the silver and a marinade syringe, along with gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and sheets to drape the car seats.

Davidson admitted she had given Walters the silver to use for his computer since it’s commonly used to keep electronics from overheating. The gloves were to protect his hands from the chemical.

Davidson also said she told Breznick to take whatever kitchen supplies she needed, and that she assumed Breznick was going to use the syringe to cook a turkey.

Instead, the items were used against Barron when he was abducted from Huntington Park in Newport News and taken to Crawford Road in Yorktown near the Tour Road overpass.

At Crawford Road, Walters, Breznick and a friend, Thomas Rogers, repeatedly beat and stabbed Barron before dousing him with lighter fluid and attempting to set him on fire. Barron was also injected with the chemicals, and then hit with a car.

Barron survived the ordeal and was taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center. He was hospitalized for a day before being released.

Circuit Judge Prentis Smiley did not buy Davidson’s story of coincidence and ignorance about the supplies. He found her guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

“I didn’t believe you,” Smiley said. “It didn’t make sense to me. I believe there was an agreement with you and at least one other, maybe four to five others, to kill Mr. Barron.”

She will be sentenced July 22.