By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

PROVIDENCE — Joshua Davis, the Woonsocket man charged with killing 8-year-old Savannah Smith in 2006, pleaded guilty in Providence County Superior Court Thursday. Davis’ admission that he kidnapped, raped and strangled the little girl was made just days before he was scheduled to go on trial next week.

Davis, 22, who was led into the courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles, pleaded guilty under oath to all three charges against him, including kidnapping a minor, first-degree child molestion and first-degree murder.
A sentencing hearing will be held in two months with Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia on June 5. Davis formerly of 564 Coe St., Apt. 2, Woonsocket, faces three consecutive life sentences and prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence for each charge.
On May 8, 2006, Savannah Smith was kidnapped and killed after she was taken from her Globe Park neighborhood in Woonsocket by Davis, who was 20 at the time and lived across the street from the Smith family. Police later found the body of the missing 8-year-old girl in woods near an industrial area in Cranston and charged Davis, the boyfriend of Savannah’s baby sitter, with murder. Davis has been held without bail at the ACI since his arrest.
During his guilty plea, Davis acknowledged the state would have proven that he molested Smith before murdering her and, in addition, that the state would have proven that the death was in a manner consistent with aggravated battery or torture.
That acknowledgement now allows the court the option of imposing a sentence of life without parole.
Davis’ attorney, public defender John Hardiman, told Judge Indeglia that Davis had agreed to plead guility to the charges in order to spare the family the ordeal of having to go through a trial, which was tentatively scheduled to begin Wednesday.
“We had an extensive meeting with Mr. Davis Tuesday and he informed us that he wanted to plead guilty,” Hardiman told the judge.
“This is something he had been indicating he wanted to do for a long time,” Hardiman told The Call following Thursday’s hearing.
Assistant Attorney General J. Patrick Youngs, declined to comment on the guilty plea, saying the case is still open pending Davis’ sentencing in June. Youngs did say that Davis’ admission of guilt was not a result of a plea bargain. “This was not a plea bargain so I’m pleased with that.”
About a dozen members of Savannah’s family, including her father, David Smith, were in the courtroom Thursday, along with a contingency of Cranston and Woonsocket police officers, including former Woonsocket Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle. The fact that police and family members were present for what was supposed to be an evidence supression hearing prior to the trial was indication they were told in advance that Davis would plead out. 
When asked by Judge Indeglia whether or not he wanted to address the court, Davis, dressed in a white dress shirt and black slacks and sporting the same shaved head and goatee, uttered a brief aplogy to Smith’s family. “I’m sorry for what happened and for what I put her family through,” he said.
Members of Smith’s family openly wept as Assistant Attorney General Bethany Macktaz read into the record the grisley details of Savannah’s death at the hands of Davis, who “lured Savannah to Cranston, carrying her into a thickly wooded area littered with trash, garbage and thorns.” It was in those woods, she said, that Davis sexually molested the little girl, “penetrating and causing severe trauma to her vagina while she was still alive.”
“He discarded the condom he was wearing and then strangled her,” Macktaz said. “He beat her around the head while she was still alive. He discarded her clothes then hid her naked body under a tree.”
When asked by Indeglia if he was admitting to the facts as presented by the state, Davis answered yes.
Savannah’s father, David Smith, and other family members declined to speak to reporters following Thursday’s plea.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued a statement yeterday, saying while Davis’ plea “spares Savannah’s family and loved ones the torment of a long trial, it does not in any way mitigate the monstrous crimes that the defendant pled guilty to this morning in open court.”
“A plea is this defendant’s prerogative, as it is any defendant’s prerogative. This outcome, however, is not a plea bargain,” Lynch said. “We did not give up any of our rights in securing it. And now, in order to do real justice, it is more than our prerogative — it is our obligation — to impress upon the court the heinousness of this defendant’s crimes and to advocate for the maximum sentence allowable under Rhode Island law.”
The charge of first degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life without parole and the kidnapping and molestation charges each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Lynch said Macktaz and Youngs were “more than ready to try the case and will now refocus their energy on making our sentencing recommendation.”