Fatal stabbing of woman at Vero Green Apartments in 2017 lands killer in prison for life

VERO BEACH − A former restaurant cook who in 2017 fatally stabbed Debora Jackson outside her Vero Green Apartments building, escaped a state execution but he will spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge ordered Thursday.

For more than five years, Davalon Brinson, 38, also known as “Damony ‘Georgia-Boy’ Brinson,” faced the death penalty if convicted in the June 10, 2017 brutal attack on Jackson, 67, who was repeatedly stabbed as she ran for her life in the predawn hours.

Jackson, who lived in the rental complex, was found dead on a sidewalk after the attack around 5:30 a.m., when deputies were called to the scene by two witnesses to the homicide, records show.

The 172-unit apartment complex is northwest of the Indian River Mall and has a front security gate.

From court records and trial testimony, Jackson and Brinson didn’t know each other, and it’s unclear why he targeted her for such a vicious assault.

Jackson was stabbed at least eight times; her throat was slashed and an artery in her collarbone was severed, jurors were told during Brinson’s trial in April.

It took a jury less than two hours on April 18 to convict him of first-degree murder with a weapon, aggravated battery on an elderly person with a deadly weapon and fleeing or eluding lights and sirens.

Mandatory life

Brinson, who shuffled into court Thursday in leg chains and handcuffs, mostly remained silent except for short replies to the judge and showed no reaction as the state argued he receive the maximum punishment.

“On the murder charge, this is a mandatory life sentence, and the state would ask the court to impose life without parole,” said Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman, who after Brinson’s trial described Jackson’s killing as “something out of a horror movie.”

“With regards to the other counts, the state would seek the maximum punishment, in order to protect the community to the greatest extent possible.”

Workman read aloud a letter written by Jackson’s son, Ibrahim Jackson, who lives in New York and couldn’t attend the hearing.

He described the “immeasurable devastation” brought to his family “by the senseless act of violence of Davalon Brinson.”

“The loss of my mother, a woman of boundless compassion and kindness leaves a void in the very fabric of our family and community … Her murderer, Davalon Brinson shattered the fundamental sense of safety we all deserve,” Workman read to Meadows.

Ibrahim Jackson called his mother’s murder “a wound that festers and refuses to heal.”

“The hole in our hearts is a constant reminder of the love stolen by the brutal hands of Davalon Brinson,” he wrote in his letter.

For Brinson’s aggravated battery conviction, Meadows imposed a 30-year prison term. He also ordered Brinson to serve another five years for fleeing from deputies, for a total punishment of life without parole plus 35 years.

The murder

Before the stabbing, a witness reported seeing a man who matched Brinson's description shortly before 4 a.m. walking near Jackson outside the apartments, officials said at the time.

Surveillance video showed an altercation between Brinson and Jackson before Brinson drove away from the apartments, speeding north on 58th Avenue.

That’s when he called his then-girlfriend, Jojasmine Pierre, 31, of Gifford, who later told officials Brinson called while he was being pursued, and she was able to hear sirens in the background.

Following a lengthy law enforcement chase, Brinson crashed his vehicle into a tree in the 4500 block of 43rd Avenue, which is close to Pierre's home, after deputies used mechanical devices to flatten his tires.

Brinson fled on foot, but deputies apprehended him after a search.

Once in custody, Brinson told investigators “I didn’t even know the lady.”

After court Thursday, retired Indian River County Sheriff’s Detective Scott Prouty, who was a lead investigator on the case, said he still gets nightmares from working the crime scene.

“Brinson got what he deserved for the senseless murder of a mother and grandmother, Ms. Jackson. I hope the Jackson family can now have some closure,” said Prouty via email.

Judge bars death penalty

Prosecutors in 2017 filed a list of the statutory aggravators they intended to prove in support of the death penalty if Brinson was convicted, including that the crime “was committed by a person previously convicted of a felony” and that Jackson’s murder was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”

However, Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn in December 2022 ruled that Brinson was “intellectually disabled” and therefore barred from a state execution.

Brinson’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Stanley Glenn, lauded Vaughn’s ruling and credited a well-documented history of Brinson’s intellectual disabilities beginning as young as age 8.

“We determined that he was intellectually disabled as a young child … We were fortunate enough to be able to gather all those records dating back to his young years that substantiated the intellectual disability,” Glenn said after court.

During Brinson’s childhood, Glenn said he was a ward of the state of Georgia during different times and he received special education classes.

He called Vaughn’s order to drop the death penalty “courageous.”

“Those motions are not often granted at the trial level,” he said.  “I really believe it’s because we had the documentation to prove it.”

Glenn said Brinson has never explained why he attacked Jackson, reportedly a total stranger.

“I really think that Davalon’s mental illness played a role in this; I couldn't prove it in a courtroom,” Glenn said. “But having known him over the duration of my representation I know so much about the case and him, it’s been my theory that that's what happened.”

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Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at  melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Killer of Vero Beach woman found fatally stabbed ordered to prison