https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-commuted-sentences-domestic-violence-1948190A convicted murderer whose sentence was commuted by Donald Trump has been convicted in Florida of an attack on his wife.
Trump commuted Jaime A. Davidson's sentence on January 20, 2021, the former president's last day in office. That month, Trump issued 143 pardons and commutations, including Davidson's. This is the second case of domestic violence by someone released by Trump to have emerged in the last week.
In July 2024, Davidson was sentenced to three months in jail for domestic violence, according to court records obtained by the news site Popular Information. Davidson's reoffending had not been previously reported.
The prosecutor in Davidson's 1990 conviction, John Duncan, objected after hearing that Davidson was released.
"If you ask me for a list of people who nobody should give a presidential commutation to, Davidson would pretty much be at the top of the list," Duncan told The New York Times in 2021.
The story was investigated by Popular Information's editor, Judd Legum.
Davidson was convicted of murdering Wallie Howard Jr., an undercover agent. Howard was shot in Syracuse, New York, and the killer stole $42,000 from him.
Davidson had planned the robbery and given the killer a gun. He was not present when Howard was killed, but prosecutors argued that Howard's death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the robbery.
In 1993, Davidson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
On March 31, 2023, just over two years after Trump released Davidson, he was charged in Orlando, Florida, with battery by strangulation and domestic violence. Davidson was accused of strangling Nayeli Chang, to whom he had been married for five months.
Chang told a subsequent trial that Davidson "grabbed me by the neck with his left hand and choked me." She told him to "let me go because I can't breathe."
