


One of them, Rocky Fugett, now 27, admits he was there that night in 2003, for which he was convicted along with his sister and another neighborhood kid. Eight years later, Fugett says an innocent man is serving time for something he didn't do, and that man– Robert Davis– wasn't even there.



Crozet Crossing




Eight months earlier, another family moved into the subdivision, folks who would play a central role in life of the Charles family– and in the death of Nola.


Nola Charles, known as "Ann" to family and friends, had grown up in Charlottesville. Her mother was from Hillsville in southwest Virginia, so her husband Dennis always called Ann a mountain girl.




Ann also had a creative side, writing short stories, making funny drawings, and adding her own personal flair to home painting projects, such as adding fish to the walls of a bathroom, he says. She stayed home with their two girls.


An odd friend





Four years older, Rocky Fugett also was into Goth. A senior at Western Albemarle, he had been involved in several scrapes and had a juvenile police record for fighting. In addition, he had spent a night in jail for a trespassing event that included leaving a dead bird in a Crozet church.

Rocky Fugett admits he spent his days drinking and taking drugs, and that he had experienced blackouts. It wasn't uncommon to see him roaming the neighborhood late at night.

Bad February

Back in 2003, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was looming, and the month of February began with the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia over Texas. On February 20, stage pyrotechnics ignited a nightclub in Rhode Island, where 100 people died in one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history.









The knife was so badly charred, Claytor later testified, that he didn't initially notice it. What remained of it appeared to match those in a wooden knife-holder in the kitchen. The medical examiner later noted that Ann Charles' throat had been cut.


Two siblings





Herrmann, 17, who lived in nearby Orchard Acres, was held in juvenile detention for several months–- until prosecutors dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Davis, however, had given prosecutors something they weren't able to extract from Herrmann: a confession.

False confession conundrum

UVA law professor Brandon Garrett is an expert in false confessions, and he understands why many people can't fathom the concept that someone would confess to a crime they didn't commit. And yet when he studied the first 250 convicts exonerated by DNA evidence, he found that 40 had given false confessions.




One Virginia man, Earl Washington Jr., spent 18 years behind bars and came within nine days of execution after giving a false confession. After DNA showed another man was the perpetrator, he won a $1.9 million settlement.



Enright declines to predict how Governor Bob McDonnell will react to a clemency plea because he hasn't faced one yet. But Virginia's track record for clemency on false confessions, at least as evidenced by what happened to the "Norfolk Four," isn't particularly forgiving.


Three convictions

Despite the urgings of prosecutors, Rocky Fugett decided that he wouldn't testify against anyone else and instead pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. In November 2005, he was sentenced to 75 years.

His sister, Jessica, was initially declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, but after a psychological evaluation, she went to trial and she was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, arson, and breaking and entering. At her 2006 sentencing, the prosecution showed a news clip of her smiling and waving at television cameras after her guilty verdict. Jessica got 100 years.



With his legs shackled, he complained he was cold, and it was almost 7am when Davis asked a fateful question of his interrogator: "What can I say I did to get me out of this?"


Rocky recants

Rocky Fugett now resides southeast of Petersburg in Sussex II State Prison. In late April of this year, he meets with two reporters– one from the Hook and one from the Daily Progress– to share his story.

Speaking via teleconference at the medium-security facility that bans recording devices, cameras, and face-to-face meetings, Rocky appears to have lost weight since his perp-walk pictures of eight years ago. The first words he utters are about Davis.






Rocky was brought in from school for questioning. Almost immediately, after claiming he saw two guys get out of a car on Cling Lane the night of the murders, according to a transcript of the interview, he tearfully tells police, "In all honesty, it may have been my sister."



What Fugett says he never expected was for Davis to confess.



"He said that doesn't matter now," Fugett says.


He'd take a beating






And although he was 18 at the time of his arrest, "Robert had the mind of a 14- or 15-year-old," says Seal, who had originally enrolled the boy at Ivy Creek, a special education school run by Albemarle County. There, the school resource officer was a cop named Randy Snead.

The arrest and interrogation







Davis insists to investigators that he knew Ann Charles only from seeing her at her job at the Dairy Queen/Amoco. And he tells them he didn't get along with Tygue Herrmann or Rocky Fugett.



More interrogation

Despite the shackles, Davis falls asleep– briefly. He's awakened by Snead, who informs Davis that only the "truth" can keep him from the "ultimate punishment."



Davis offers–- incorrectly–- that the object was a bat; he later calls it a "clubbing device."




"I was with two big figures," Robert replies.



Coerced compliance?






With the prosecution also vowing to have Rocky testify that Davis was present, Rosenfield– who helped Earl Washington win his civil lawsuit– recommended that Davis take the Alford plea and its 23 years rather than risk a life sentence.

Prank gone wrong?

Jessica Fugett, now in Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women,  insists that Robert Davis and Tygue Herrmann were present that night. "I've maintained that story," she explains, "for eight years."

Jessica Fugett acknowledges that she can't really explain why Robert Davis and Tygue Herrmann, two enemies of her brother, would agree to join a murderous rampage.




Jessica also offers a different motive for the senseless evening.




Innocence project

Rocky Fugett first came forward in 2006 in a letter to Davis' attorney Rosenfield: "I feel the information in my possession would help change the outcome of his conviction," he wrote. Today, Rocky Fugett says he didn't have any come-to-Jesus moment about reversing his stance.




William Fugett declined to be interviewed.


As for Snead, his career has moved upward. Despite getting involved in an out-of-jurisdiction shooting of a 19-year-old cop-car thief last year, he holds the the rank of major, and he's running for the office of Greene County Sheriff.

Another birthday behind bars




Although his special needs status allowed him to earn his Western Albemarle diploma from jail, and although he just graduated from prison print school, where he's learned how to run a press and do desktop publishing, Davis fears that his original career goal–- becoming a CNA, a certified nursing assistant–- could be derailed by the murder conviction.







He spends a lot of time drawing and reading–- fantasy, philosophy, history, and poetry. Walt Whitman is a favorite. "Sometimes I write my own songs, and I'm working on a poetry book," he says.








Once again, as usual, the repeated theme throughout this story seems to be "no comment" by the police interrogators involved in this case. This bothers me a lot. They had plenty to say during the interrogations and trial.

I can understand Snead not wanting to get involved any further now, he doesn't want anything to jeopardize his chances of a victory while running for public office (sheriff of Greene County).

Schwertfeger remains "open-minded" about new information? But he refuses to speak now about the interrogations. Can't have it both ways, bud.

I guess this was a very tough case to investigate. I can only hope they didn't put an innocent party in prison.

By the way, Lisa ............. excellent story!

Funny, but recently I was watching an old Dateline NBC episode on the 'net concerning a story that took place where I grew up in Connecticut as a kid, concerning young kids that were 18, falsely accused of killing a boy that they didn't, by an enemy who didn't like them. And then police interrogations gone awry, where the cops admit they lied to coerce what seems to be false confessions. Which were later recanted. But it was too late, and now somebody's behind bars (for over 10 years now) who shouldn't be and the police won't budge. Here's the link:

This whole business of cops lying to kids and coercing false confessions after multiple hours of browbeating them and terrorizing them really angers me. Just reading the transcript of Robert Davis' so-called "confession" makes me wonder how much an idiot the cops had to be to think that was actually some kind of genuine confession.

Considering how much it costs to house an inmate every year, and how much prison overcrowding there is, you'd think that they'd want to get rid of as many inmates as they can. Oh but wait.....then that means they may run the risk of getting sued should Robert Davis ever be allowed out. They may have to pay millions in restitution. Ah, now it makes sense why it's "look the other way and throw away the key."


Also, I'm left wondering what in the heck was going on in the Fugett's home to produce two siblings that were this crazy? Apparently Jessica's even more crazy then Rocky, but still, both were very troubled. At least one shows remorse and seems to understand right from wrong, and stepped forward to do the right thing in attempting to exonerate somebody that he even admits he didn't like, but, it's the right thing to do. The other one though....I wonder how that happened. This article makes me wonder what the parents are like. What do they look like? What are their personalities like? The mom was best friends with Ann, but were there any indicators of her being off, enough so that it makes sense why her two kids became so messed up? What about the father? Well, I guess the one quote from the father William Fugett is pretty telling in terms of where he's coming from as a person: "If my children have to be there, yours does, too."

this seems like the cops just wanted to close a high profile case and jumped at anything they could. where where the miranda rights during this? why didnt the kids just ask to talk to someone after 8 hours of bs?

I know Robert and his mother personally. This has been a long drawn out ordeal for both of them. This was a horrible crime and anyone who was responsible should be punished to the full extent of the law. If Robert is innocent, he should be pardoned by the Governor and let go. If you have young sons or daughters and if they get into a situation like this, tell them to say "I WANT AN ATTORNEY" "I WANT AN ATTORNEY" "I WANT A LAWYER" over and over again to every question that is asked. All questioning has to stop at that time. Robert being a little bit slow and not knowing what to do did not do this so the so called questioning went on and on. No food, no water, no inhaler that he needed, also so cold in that room that he tried to wrap up in his jacket. The interrogator Snead knew Robert from his school and should have known that he was slow and would follow his lead and say what Snead wanted him to say. I wonder why Snead left Albemarle for Green County? HMMM. Maybe this case had something to do with it. I just hope that justice is done and if Robert is innnocent that something is done before long. If he is guilty, he is where he should be. Let the wheels of justice roll and do the right thing. This case needs to be reopened and all evidence be reviewed and if there is evidence that was not presented that would have helped Robert, let it be brought out now. I am praying for Ann's family and for Robert's that this will soon be over.

Nope, They're guilty.

No he's innocent. It's plain as the nose on your face -what a miscarriage of justice. I just hope if the Governor doesn't have the good sense to pardon him that the Innocence Project will step in.
I plan to personally write and ask for a pardon and I encourage other readers to do the same.

Great job reporting Lisa !

The Innocence Project has been very successful. Why not start a Guilty Project to help keep behind bars the many criminals who lie about their innocence in their appeals?

Deleted by moderator.

These type of over the top "interviews" happen more often than any LE agency will ever admit. The willingness to put an apparently innocent person in prison to further one's own carreer should scare the $%#@ out of anyone who has to interact with this deputy.