The capital murder case against a 31-year-old woman in Homewood will move forward even though the alleged murder weapons in the slaying of a U.S. Army veteran – a necktie and a dog leash – were inadvertently thrown away by Homewood police, a judge has ruled.

Alexandria Nicole Davis, 31, was arrested in September 2021, a day after 30-year-old Johnnie Will Anderson III was found dead and decomposing in his apartment.

Anderson, according to court documents, was found with a necktie and a dog leash around his neck. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide by strangulation.

Public Defenders Paul H. Rand and Sammie Shaw earlier this year asked that the capital murder charge be dismissed, saying that there’s no way to get a fair trial without such important evidence.

Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Hebson contended in a hearing that the missing physical evidence – which also included the victim’s clothing – is still documented through crime scene photos.

“The dog leash and necktie are so critical to the defense as to make any trial without them fundamentally unfair,’’ Rand wrote in his motion.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May on Tuesday denied the motion to dismiss the charges. May, in his ruling, said the loss of evidence is reprehensible, but was not done in bad faith.

Alabama case law, he said, is clear concerning the issue of lost evidence. Whether the loss of evidence is fundamentally unfair to a defendant is to be determined on a case-by-case basis weighing three factors:

– The culpability of the government in the loss of the evidence

– The importance of the loss of the evidence

– The prejudice to the defendant from this loss of evidence

“In analyzing these factors (from previous case law), the court cannot find that the aforementioned handling and/or conduct rises to the level of bad faith on the part of the state in the loss of this evidence,’’ May wrote. “This court hereby explicitly and unequivocally states that the court believes the conduct of the evidence technicians involved in the handling of this evidence, as well as those officers responsible for the storage and day-to-day operations of the Homewood Police Department Property Room to be reprehensible.”

A hearing on the matter was held by May in April. He took it under advisement, with these words:

“This was probably, in my 30 years of practicing and on the bench, the most deplorable handling of evidence I have ever seen,’’ May said during the April hearing. “I have never seen anything like this.”

“And I will say, heads need to roll, because this decedent — I don’t care who was in fact, the murderer, he deserved much better than what Homewood gave him.”

“It’s put the state in a position they don’t deserve to be in, as well as the defense,’’ May said. “And nobody bears that brunt except for Homewood Police Department.”

Homewood police released this statement to AL.com about the destroyed evidence:

“An internal investigation was conducted by the Homewood Police Department Internal Affairs Division. The investigation concluded that proper procedures in the handling and storage of evidence were not followed by two property custodians. Both property custodians were appropriately disciplined and reassigned.”

Anderson, the father of a 10-year-old daughter, was found dead Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, at his home at the Park at Buckingham apartments on Aspen Circle. Authorities believe he had been dead for several days.

Davis was taken into custody Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, at the Circle K on Lorna Road. She is also charged with attempted murder in the unrelated stabbing of another woman that happened in Birmingham on that Saturday, just hours before she was arrested in Hoover.

The lookout bulletin for the suspect in the stabbing matched the description of Anderson’s missing vehicle – a grey Dodge Charger. An officer spotted the wanted vehicle that Saturday afternoon.

Both Homewood and Birmingham police also responded to the scene, and Birmingham police placed Davis in the Birmingham City Jail pending their ongoing stabbing investigation.

Birmingham detectives then charged Davis with attempted murder and obstruction of justice, claiming she provided them with a false identity. Days later, Homewood police charged her in Anderson’s death.

Davis had just been arrested on Aug. 30, 2021, by Hoover police on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance.

That arrest followed Hoover police responding to a reported robbery that turned out to be a civil dispute. Used needles and meth were found during that incident, according to court records.

Prior to that arrest, Davis pleaded guilty to a 2020 theft of a Nissan from a man in Birmingham. As part of her plea, she was ordered to take part in the Deferred Theft Court Program, with the stipulation that she would have to serve 18 months in prison if she failed the program.

On Sept. 12, 2021, a judge ruled her non-compliant and issued a warrant for her arrest.

According to Rand’s motion to dismiss the case against Davis, a coroner’s report indicates Anderson had been using methamphetamine and was found with a necktie and a dog leash around his neck. Blood was discovered on the carpet near Anderson’s body and a bloody handprint and additional blood samples were also on the air mattress where his body was found.

Two dogs were on the balcony of the apartment and the front door was unlocked. Davis, police said, told them she put the dogs on the balcony so they would not do anything to Anderson’s body after she left.

According to Homewood investigators, Rand’s motion states, Davis said she’d met Anderson on Facebook when she needed a ride.

“He bought drugs for the two of them, which they used, and the two had sex in his apartment,’’ Rand wrote of the police interview summary. “She reported that Anderson was ‘rough’ with her, that she was frightened of him.”

Rand goes on to say that Anderson blocked the door and made Davis watch videos on his computer featuring people who preached about “purging” the world of “whores and drug abusers.”

“Ms. Davis told the police she believed Mr. Anderson was going to hurt her,’’ Rand wrote.

In a recorded interview, according to the motion, Davis told investigators that she tightened the necktie around his neck with his knowledge.

“Mr. Anderson was conscious when she wrapped the necktie around his neck, and he lost consciousness but did not try to prevent her from doing what she was doing,’’ Rand wrote.

“He was unconscious when she left the apartment.”

“Notably, Ms. Davis denied having anything to do with the dog leash and stated she did not place the dog leash on Mr. Anderson’s neck,’’ he wrote.

“She left the apartment unlocked when she left, and it was unlocked when his body was found two days later.”

According to the motion, evidence was collected at the scene on Sept. 10, 2021, where Anderson’s body was found, and the coroner’s office took possession of the body and items found on the body.

Police collected some of the items on Sept. 13, 2021, but no property report was prepared.

On Nov. 17, 2021, more items were collected from the coroner’s office and taken to police headquarters where they were placed in a biohazard bag and put in the property room. Those items included a necktie, dog leash, shirt, socks, shorts and a t-shirt.

Again, Rand contended, no property report was completed.

The biohazard bag remained in the property room until Feb. 1, 2022, when it was placed in a trash bag. That trash bag was taken to the dumpster at police headquarters on Feb. 4, 2022.

Testimony at the April hearing indicated that police learned the evidence was missing, reviewed video footage and learned the evidence had been thrown away. An evidence technician had put the evidence near a bay door to air it out because of the odor, and it was mistaken as trash.

“The Homewood PD had these items in its possession for almost three months before they destroyed the deceased’s clothes and the necktie and dog leash – items which the coroner says caused Mr. Anderson’s death,’’ Rand wrote.

Rand argued that police knew the importance of the necktie because it needed to be tested so authorities could establish whether Davis’s story was true, and whether anything had happened to the scene during the two days between when Davis left the apartment and when Anderson’s body was found.

Because Davis admitted to putting the tie around the victim’s neck but denied knowing anything about a dog leash, the motion states, the possibility exists that a number of things could have happened in the days following Davis’s departure and the discovery of Anderson’s body.

“Now that this evidence has been destroyed without being tested by any party, we will never know what an analysis of the dog leash and necktie might reveal,’’ the motion stated. “It is possible that Ms. Davis’s DNA is on one item but not the other.”

“It is possible that someone else’s DNA would have been found on both, especially given that the apartment was unlocked, and two days passed from when she left and the body was discovered,’’ Rand says in his motion.

“It is also possible that, upon analysis, testing would have revealed that Mr. Anderson had used either the necktie or the leash, or both, as the last person to handle them before his death.”

May, in Tuesday’s order, wrote that while the level of culpability does not rise to bad faith, it clearly “rises to gross and incompetent negligence’’ concerning the duty owed by police to the victim and his family.

The judge said he finds the loss and the prevention of testing to be prejudicial and will allow and substantially limit ay testimony concerning the existence of the lost items.

“The court shall allow how and where the destroyed items were found in association with the alleged victim’s body, how they were recovered, packaged, received, handled and ultimately destroyed by the Homewood Police Department,’’ May wrote. “The court further intends to give a spoilation instruction to the jury that they can draw/make certain inferences against the state of Alabama concerning the lack of testing and/or examination, as well as the fact that the evidence was allowed to be improperly destroyed prior to examination/testing.”

A trial date has not been set.