JUNCTION CITY, Kansas (Court TV) — Christopher Wilson and his then 8-year old brother, Tramell, were waiting for the school bus at the bus stop across the street from Sabine Davidson's home in Milford, Kansas. While waiting, the two boys were accosted by three of Davidson's four Rottweiler dogs. The two temporarily escaped the dogs by climbing up a tree. Christopher was attacked and killed by the three dogs when he decided to climb down from the tree to see where the dogs had run off to.

The defendant, Sabine Davidson

When Geary County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene, they shot and killed the dogs and subsequently arrested their owners, Sabine and Jeffrey Davidson. The Davidsons were initially charged with allowing dangerous animals to run loose. The charges were soon upgraded to manslaughter — and then to unintentional second-degree murder, a law that went into effect in Kansas in 1993.

Prosecutors say that the charges were increased because of evidence that the Davidson's had taught their dogs aspects of "Schutzhund," a German dog training sport which includes teaching dogs how to bite. The state also found evidence that the Davidsons had been previously warned about their dogs roaming free and had done little to address those warnings.

A Typical Spring Morning

The morning of April 24, 1997 in the Milford subdivision known as Country Meadows estates started out routinely for Christopher and Tramell Wilson. Like other mornings before school, the young brothers headed down Mockingbird Road toward the Milford School bus stop in front of Tony Van Buren's house. Van Buren's house is located on Red Bird Road near the corner of Mockingbird Road. The front of the house looks east across Red Bird to the side of the Davidson home and its chain-link fenced backyard. The front of the Davidson house looks north across Mockingbird.

The victim, Christopher Wilson

Tramell said that he observed the Davidsons' dogs through the chain-link fence digging under the fence as they had the two previous days. Tramell said he was thinking, "Come on, bus!" as he watched the dogs digging quickly and aggressively. He saw the Rottweilers running toward him and his brother. The boys ran for a tree alongside Van Buren's garage and managed to climb high enough to avoid the dogs. Once the dogs were out of sight, Christopher climbed down the tree and went to find out where the dogs went. The dogs attacked Christopher from behind and inflicted fatal bites around the boy's neck and throat.

The school bus arrived in the aftermath and a busload of children watched in horror as the dogs played a "tug-of-war" with Christopher's body. The arriving authorities shot and killed Chance, a 15-month old male Rottweiler, and Panda, a 6-month old female. Jenny, a 13-month old female Rottweiler, escaped into the woods but was shot and killed several hours later as she was apparently heading back into the neighborhood.

Sabine Davidson was apparently asleep on the living room couch when the incident took place. Davidson told the authorities that she was sick and had taken cold medicine the night before with a sleep aid in it. She awoke at around 3:30 a.m. to hear Chance, Panda and Jenny barking. She let them in the house and stayed up with them until about 6 a.m. when she let them out to the backyard again. She was supposed to get her daughter, Victoria, up for school, but fell back to sleep. She said she never heard the dogs barking outside, the school bus horn or the gunshots fired by the deputies.

An Attack Waiting to Happen?

Sabine insists that the dogs had not been trained for attacking people. But there were earlier incidents reported about the three Rottweilers. On June 14, 1996, neighbor Tony Van Buren, a sergeant with the Kansas Highway Patrol, said he was in front of his house with a friend when he saw two boys riding bikes in the intersection of Red Bird and Mockingbird Roads. He saw three dogs approaching the boys in the street in a menacing manner. Van Buren asked his friend to try to distract the dogs while he ran in the house to grab his service revolver and a baseball bat. When he returned outside, Van Buren yelled at the dogs and they began running back to the Davidson home. Sheriff's Deputy Sonia Gregoire arrived and assisted Van Buren in getting the dogs back to their home. Gregoire left a business card with a case number on the door when she discovered the Davidsons were not home.

Other neighbors also reported incidents in which they got their guns when the Davidson's Rottweilers trespassed on their property, but eventually ran away.

The Charges

Sabine and her husband, Jeffrey, are each charged with one count of unintentional second-degree murder and endangering a child under the age of 18 (Tramell Wilson), a misdemeanor. Jeffrey's trial is set for March 1998.

To convict Sabine of unintentional second-degree murder, the state has to prove key elements to the jury showing that Sabine acted recklessly and with extreme indifference to the value of human life.

The Defense

Sabine argues that although many witnesses claim that the Davidsons' dogs were terrifying and ran roughshod throughout the neighborhood, no one went to the Davidsons personally and complained. The sole complaint came from a neighbor annoyed by the dogs defecating on her lawn. The defense also argues that the Davidsons took the prudent step of putting a padlock through a lock hole provided just above the clasp. In most circumstances, that type of lock secures the gate to the anchor pole. The Davidsons took steps reasonable people would take, but they did not count on the dogs' ability to dig under the fence.