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Gervonta Davis Sentenced to House Arrest in Baltimore Friday
Top-ranked lightweight Gervonta Davis learned his fate today in a Baltimore courtroom after pleading guilty to four criminal charges in connection with a 2020 hit-and-run accident.
Davis, age 28, was reportedly late to his 2 p.m. hearing at the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse before Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Althea M. Handy.
Gervonta “Tank” Davis received a relatively light sentence today in Baltimore: 60 days of house arrest and 200 hours of community service.
Judge Handy sentenced Davis to 90 days of house arrest, plus three years’ probation time. The 28-year-old Baltimore native now lives in Florida, but he must serve his house arrest in Baltimore City. In addition, Davis must perform 200 hours of community service.
This means Davis avoids jail time in connection with this case, which was anticipated after a previous plea deal was rejected.
According to CBS affiliate WLS-TV reporter Kelsey Kushner, Davis’s original sentence was set at two years in prison, plus 60 days. The prison sentence is suspended in lieu of Davis successfully completing 90 days of home detention and three years’ probation. If Davis violates the terms of his sentence, he can be immediately remanded to serve the original prison term.
Davis may be permitted to leave the house to continue training at the gym.
UPDATE: Trainer Calvin Ford is reported to have offered his home to the court for Davis to serve the house arrest portion of his sentence.
Davis Previous Plea Deal Rejected
Gervonta Davis made relatively easy work of Ryan Garcia in April. Photo: Esther Lin, Showtime Boxing
In September, Davis and his attorney proposed a plea agreement, which requested Davis serve no time in custody in exchange for his guilty plea. The deal originally called for a one-year suspended sentence with two months of home confinement and work release. He agreed to plead guilty to charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and damage to property, driving on a revoked license, and running a red light.
Prosecutors had agreed, but Judge Melissa M. Phinn rejected the deal, expressing her belief the circumstances merited time in custody.
According to a report on the hearing in the Baltimore Banner, Judge Phinn made the ruling after victim Jyair Smith opposed the deal and spoke in court at the hearing. Smith was reportedly six months pregnant at the time of the accident and described seeing Davis at the scene after he failed to assist her. Firefighters had to extricate Smith from the crushed vehicle.
“I begged Mr. Gervonta Davis; I looked him in his eyes,” Smith said. “I said, ‘I have to get home to my daughter, I’m pregnant.’ He never once came over to help me.”
Boxing Put On Hold For Tank
On April 22 in Las Vegas, Davis defeated Ryan Garcia by sixth-round knockout in a highly anticipated fight. It sold over one million pay-per-views and earned the fifth-highest all-time gate for a Las Vegas fight. In the streaming era, it’s a significant accomplishment.
Today’s sentence is light enough to have virtually no effect from a practical standpoint for Tank Davis. He wasn’t likely to get back in the ring before fall 2023, despite the relatively easy victory.
Ironically, Davis’s mentor, Floyd Mayweather, offers a template for Davis’s current circumstances.
Mayweather served 60 days of a 90-day sentence in 2012 in the Clark County (Nevada) Jail on a domestic violence conviction. He negotiated a delay in his surrender to serve his time until after his August fight with then-WBA Super Welterweight champion Miguel Cotto. The fight was considered so critically important to the Las Vegas economy, the judge permitted the delay.
