Despite Davis’ attorney David Dusek’s attempts to attack the credibility of the Minot Police Department’s investigation and the evidence presented by the prosecution, Davis was ultimately found guilty of murder-intentional or knowing-adult victim, a Class AA felony; tampering with physical evidence and unlawful possession of firearm-felon or violent misdemeanor, both Class C felonies, and false information to law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor.

Deputy Ward County State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen laid out the prosecution’s theory of the case to the jury during her closing, arguing that the only conclusion supported by the evidence and witness testimony was that Davis shot McMillan in a downtown Minot establishment and concealed his body in a basement boiler room.

“Ladies and gentleman, I have talked to you a lot. You have heard a lot of information throughout the course of this trial,” Sorgen said. “The state believes, and that you will find it as well, this defendant Delon Evan Davis, intentionally or knowingly shot Mark Ramon McMillan, killed him dead, then proceeded to hide the body, clean up the scene, dispose of the weapon, dispose of the drug, that he was a felon in possession of firearm, and then proceeded to lie to the police about it to avoid being caught and prosecuted. That means guilty on all four counts.”

Dusek argued in his closing that the Minot Police Department did not investigate his client’s claims thoroughly enough and the evidence presented during the trial contained a number of critical omissions.

Deputy Ward County State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen delivers rebuttal arguments at the conclusion of the murder trial of Delon Davis at the Ward County Courthouse on Thursday morning.

Dusek attacked the credibility of witness William Weber, who testified he was with McMillan in the basement of the establishment for a drug deal in the moments before he was shot, noting that Weber gave five different statements to investigators.

Dusek also faulted Minot Police investigators for not locating McMillan’s body during a search of the establishment two weeks after the murder, for not verifying presumptive field blood indicator tests, for a lack of ballistic evidence presented in the trial, and for what he believed was a failure to review Anthony Decoteau’s cell phone for evidence, which could have proved he had threatened Davis’ family to compel him to conceal McMillan’s body.

“They didn’t do it. Good police (work) would have shown that to them, to confirm or disprove Delon’s story. That has to disturb all of us,” Dusek said. “They didn’t do a full and fair investigation.”

Dusek said his client’s actions were justified under self defense, citing Davis’ testimony that McMillan had threatened him recently during an ongoing dispute and McMillan didn’t have permission to be on the premises at the time. Additionally, Dusek argued his client shouldn’t be found guilty of tampering with evidence for concealing McMillan’s body, as he claimed he did so under duress.

“He was legally allowed to shoot him. He couldn’t possess a gun, but he possessed it out of necessity because someone had threatened his life. Davis testified it was either him or me,” Dusek said.

Delon Davis' attorney David Dusek gives his closing statements at the Ward County Courthouse on Thursday.

Sorgen delivered a rebuttal to Dusek’s four main points, arguing that all were nothing more than “red herrings” to sow unreasonable doubt in the jury. Sorgen said the case agent, Sgt. Shane Johnson, did investigate Davis’ version of events for two weeks before charging him. Sorgen said testimony from Weber and the defendant himself didn’t corroborate Dusek’s assertion that McMillan was in possession of a gun.

Sorgen said ballistic evidence couldn’t be secured due to the defendant disposing of the establishment’s shop gun after the incident. Sorgen further argued that getting DNA and lab verification for the blood illumination tests were unnecessary given that McMillan’s body was literally feet away and the bleach Davis testified to using to clean up the scene would have destroyed any DNA evidence anyway.

Additionally, Sorgen responded to Dusek’s concerns about the lack of a search warrant for Decoteau’s phone, saying it was unnecessary given his testimony that he didn’t even know Davis when the murder occurred. Sorgen said the body camera footage wasn’t played for the jury, as she thought Johnson’s recollections from his review was sufficient. Sorgen put the blame firmly on Davis for the search’s failure, saying police didn’t have a warrant for the premises and were relying on Davis himself to escort them through it and give them access to rooms.

“To blame the police for Mr. Davis’ continued lies to them. They didn’t make him lie to them. They didn’t say, ‘You need to kill Ramon. You need to clean it up.’ They weren’t the ones forcing him to tell all those lies. In fact, they begged him repeatedly to tell them the truth and to be honest with them,” Sorgen said. “Was he? He was not. He had every opportunity to tell them there was another room back there with a dead body in it wrapped up like a mummy rotting in a puddle. He chose not to do that.”

Sorgen took issue with Dusek’s claim that investigators were only concerned with pinning the case on Davis, saying the Minot Police’s “thorough and complete investigation” had an easy time poking holes in Davis’ narrative, describing it as “paper thin.”

The jury was released for deliberations at noon and returned its verdict around 3:30 p.m. Davis faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole for the Class AA felony murder count.

Judge Douglas Mattson indicated that despite retiring at the end of May, he will be seeing the case through to the sentencing. Mattson ordered a pre-sentence investigation. No sentencing date has been set.