Davis pleads not guilty on child sex abuse charges

Havre Daily News staff

A man who was living with a young woman in Havre when she notified authorities she was the one who went missing as a child four years earlier in Arizona pleaded not guilty today to two unrelated felony counts of sexual abuse of children.

Edmund Davis Harris, who was 36 when he was charged in October, entered his pleas of not guilty before state District Judge Kaydee Snipes Ruiz in District Court in Havre.

After Davis' attorney Casey Moore requested time to talk to the prosecution and other parties about bond, Snipes Ruiz reserved the issue of a motion on changing bond.

Davis, who entered his plea via video from Hill County Detention Center, was being held this morning on $1 million bond.

Snipes Ruiz set Dec. 22 as the deadline for omnibus motions.

Special Deputy Attorney Daniel Guzynski, who is representing the state as lead prosecutor, also asked for confirmation that Davis had discussed the potential penalties with his attorney, which Moore said they have discussed.

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 in Chinook Oct. 23 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 the previous week to help ensure a safe arrest.

The release said 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' 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 came 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 Davis 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 Oct. 25, 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 October 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.