Havre man connected to Arizona teen Navarro charged with sex crimes

A Havre man, who court documents say was living with a teenager reported missing four years ago in Arizona when she was 14, has been charged in state District Court with crimes related to images found on his cellphone.

Edmund Davis, 36, was charged with two felony counts of sexual abuse of children and is being held in the Hill County Detention Center on $1 million bond, as ordered by state District Court Judge Kaydee Snipes Ruiz.

The first charge, for possessing electronic communication images of a child or children 12 or younger, carries a minimum 100-year prison sentence, 25 of which may not be suspended or deferred, and the second charge, for possessing images of children younger than 16, can result in imprisonment for life with a minimum sentence of four years.

Davis was arrested Monday in Chinook by Blaine County Sheriff’s Office personnel and agents from the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation.

A press release from the Montana Attorney General’s Office said charges were filed under seal last week to help ensure a safe arrest.

The release says the child sex abuse material was found on Davis’ cellphone, which was seized when a search warrant was executed in Havre in July.

The Havre Police Department served the warrant on Davis’s apartment after learning that Alicia Navarro, 18, who went missing from Glendale, Arizona, as a 14-year-old in 2019, was living there.

When she answered the door, the release said, officers observed Davis in the kitchen behind her throwing a cellphone in the trash and placing items on top of the phone as if to hide it.

The release says dozens of images of suspected child sex abuse material were found on the phone, and a review of the images by medical professionals determined the individuals depicted to be younger than 13, with two images of children younger than 5.

“The phone contained images of infants and toddlers and other computer-generated or animated content showing children being sexualized,” the release says.

Davis’ arrest comes four months after police first investigated his home following the discovery that Arizona teen Alicia Navarro was living with him.

Charging documents in the case against Davis say that earlier this year Navarro showed up at the Havre Police Department to identify herself and say she wanted to be taken off the missing persons list.

Navarro, 18 at that time, was reported missing from Glendale, Arizona, in 2019, days before her 15th birthday.

The Havre Police Department contacted the Glendale Police Department and the FBI and Havre police would confirm her identity shortly after.

Three days later a search warrant was executed in which the cellphone containing the child abuse imagery was found.

Court documents say that Edmund had been seen in the presence of Navarro before she had gone to the Havre Police Department and was later identified as her boyfriend.

In a statement released this morning the Glendale Police Department said the initial disappearance of Navarro is still under investigation and they will not release any details for now.

“It is our department’s goal to complete the most thorough investigation possible in order to bring justice to Alicia and her family,” the statement said.

The statement said that the Glendale Police Department will be directing all inquiries regarding the arrest of Edmund Davis to the Division of Criminal Investigations at the Montana Department of Justice. Inquiries may be sent to Communications Director Kyler Nerison at [email protected].

The department thanked the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the Havre Police Department, the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office and the Montana Attorney General’s Office for their ongoing assistance during their investigation.