Texas man guilty of killing babysitter to keep her from testifying

A Texas man was convicted Tuesday of killing his children's babysitter to keep her from testifying at his trial for raping her. The trial went into the penalty phase immediately, with Dallas County prosecutors calling witnesses in an effort to get a death sentence for Franklin Davis, the Dallas Morning News reported. Davis admitted during the trial that he killed Shania Gray, 16, last year but denied raping her when she was 14. Davis was scheduled to go on trial on the rape charge in October 2012. But Shania disappeared in September, her body found days later in the Trinity River. Defense lawyers are seeking a sentence of life without parole. During the trial, they tried to convince jurors to find Davis guilty of murder, instead of the most serious charge of capital murder. Investigators said Davis lured Shania, who had done babysitting for him at his home in Mesquite, to her death with phone calls in which he pretended to be another man who needed to talk to her about the rape case. Prosecutors said Davis also sent himself text messages that appeared to come from Shania and said he was not a rapist. Defense lawyers portrayed his actions as those of a man trying to carry out an investigation where police had not done a thorough job. During the penalty phase, jurors were told of an escape attempt when Davis seized a deputy's gun at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He got away but was found in a van a short time later.