BALTIMORE — Champion boxer Gervonta “Tank” Davis will remain behind bars for the duration of his sentence stemming from a 2020 hit-and-run that injured four motorists in his native Baltimore.
City Circuit Judge Althea M. Handy on Thursday rejected an urgent plea for Davis’ release from his new, high-powered legal team.
Sheriff’s deputies took Davis, 28, into custody earlier this month at Handy’s order because Davis moved twice without the judge’s approval while serving 90 days of home detention for his traffic convictions.
Rather than remain at his trainer’s apartment, like he’d agreed to do at sentencing, Davis left for a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Harbor East. It’s the same hotel he went to in the early morning of Nov. 5, 2020, after ditching his police escort from a Baltimore nightclub and crashing his brand new Lamborghini, which he was driving without a license, into a car occupied by four people and leaving the scene.
While at the Four Seasons this month, Davis purchased a condominium at Silo Point, a luxury complex in Locust Point, and moved in there.
In court June 1 after Davis’ arrest, his lawyer at the time, Michael Tomko, said he advised the boxer that he could move because the trainer’s one-bedroom apartment couldn’t accommodate Davis’ security detail.
“The point is ... I made a decision for his safety, Judge,” said Tomko, an experienced defense attorney, in court. “He didn’t do — he listened to me.”
Davis spoke out by phone from jail, calling Handy “crazy” for incarcerating him in an Instagram Live post. He also found new legal representation behind bars in prominent attorney Andrew Jay Graham.
Graham filed an “emergency” motion June 9 asking that Handy modify Davis’ sentence to allow house arrest, arguing that he shouldn’t be punished for his former lawyer’s mistakes, that his incarceration with people serving time for crimes of violence wasn’t appropriate for the traffic offenses Davis was convicted of and that time in jail meant falling behind on his training regimen, which could cost him millions of dollars.
Before beginning his sentence, Davis earned the biggest victory of his career by knocking out Ryan Garcia on April 22 in Las Vegas.
“Mr. Davis is at an important stage of his career where he must maintain a strict training regimen to remain at the top of his game. ... Maintaining a strict diet and daily physical exercise plan with the active assistance of a professional trainer are critical to his professional success,” Graham wrote in the motion. “Mr. Davis is simply unable to do this in the confines of a state prison facility.”
Graham also apologized for his client’s “emotional and ill-advised” comments about Handy, describing them as an “outburst that occurred as a result of feeling extreme frustration about being punished for acts that truly were not his fault.”
On Tuesday, Graham submitted a letter to Handy indicating he spoke to Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who along with the prosecutor handling the case, David Owens, approved of Davis’ release. The defense lawyer reiterated his request for Davis to be put on home detention, or at least to argue his case in a court hearing.
Handy denied the request without setting a hearing.
Graham declined to comment by phone Friday.
It’s unclear where Davis is in custody, as his name has been removed from the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services’ online “inmate locator.”
Department spokeswoman Latoya Gray confirmed Friday that Davis remains in state custody, but declined to say where, citing safety concerns.
“On occasion, in instances involving high-profile individuals where safety may be compromised, the Department does not disclose the location of an individual,” Gray said in an email.
Davis pleaded guilty in February to four counts: leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failing to notify an owner of property damage, driving on a suspended license and running a red light.
Handy expressed concern in May about sentencing Davis, a Florida resident, to house arrest if he couldn’t find a place to live in Baltimore. The judge also said he lacked remorse for his actions.
“He believes he is above the law,” Handy said in May.
In the end, however, the judge agreed to let Davis serve a 90-day sentence at the Baltimore apartment of his trainer, Calvin Ford.
