GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — A judge has added 20 years to the life sentence a Middle Tennessee teenager will serve in the 2012 sledgehammer beating death of his mother.
Multiple media outlets reported Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay sentenced 17-year-old Zachary Davis to 20 years each for attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson for a fire at the house while his brother was asleep. Those sentences are to be served concurrently but consecutive to the automatic life sentence Davis received for his first-degree murder conviction.
Davis was found guilty in April of killing his mother, 48-year-old Melanie Davis, with a sledgehammer while she slept.
Defense attorneys have argued that Davis suffers from mental illness. Davis' grandmother asked Friday that he be given mental treatment instead of a prison sentence.