Milton Davis, a 22-year-old Black man from New Orleans, Louisiana, was killed in a burst of gunfire on Sunday, August 14, 2011, in the Central City area near the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and South Robertson Street. That evening, he was gathered outside in a neighborhood tied closely to the Melpomene housing development, where people sat on steps and moved through the block as they always had, until a dark vehicle circled and the calm snapped. When police arrived in response to a 911 call, they found Davis already dead near the side of a double house, and investigators noted the violence had been heavy and chaotic: spent casings from multiple calibers littered the area, and three other men—Ray Allen, Jajuan Forshey, and Shawn Grayson—had been shot and rushed to a hospital before detectives could even begin sorting out what had happened. The autopsy later counted four gunshot wounds on Davis, two of them fatal.
In the immediate aftermath, officers canvassed the neighborhood, spoke with the surviving victims and families, and reviewed nearby surveillance footage, but the case stalled. Witnesses and victims did not provide descriptions, and detectives heard the same warning again and again—people were afraid that talking would bring retaliation while the shooters were still out on the street. With no clear suspect to chase, the killing hardened into a cold case, one more loss carried quietly by relatives and friends who would later gather for funeral services the following weekend.
The break came long after the gunfire faded. In 2013, a witness named Passion Cobbins volunteered information about Davis’ killing while she was being interviewed in connection with an unrelated homicide investigation. Cold Case detectives met with her on February 26, 2013, and from what she described they developed Demond Sandifer—known by the nickname “Lil D”—as a suspect. Investigators used a double-blind photographic lineup process designed to reduce suggestion, and Cobbins identified Sandifer as the person she said she saw that night. She described a black car making the block, then stopping the second time. She said Sandifer got out dressed in black, carrying a black gun, and moved toward the corner, firing before he even reached Martin Luther King Boulevard. In her account, the street erupted as people scattered, and when the shooting stopped, the gunman returned to the car and climbed into the passenger seat. She also placed Sandifer’s half-brother, Sam Newman, at the scene inside the vehicle, though she later backed away from earlier statements about whether Newman fired a weapon, insisting she was certain about Sandifer’s role and explaining she had not spoken to police that night because she feared retaliation.
Detectives also spoke to Cobbins’ cousin, Cash Cobbins, who had been grazed by a bullet during the shooting and was incarcerated at the time of the interview. Through another photo lineup administered by an officer with no connection to the case, he identified Sandifer as the shooter he knew as “Lil D.” His version of the moments before the killing placed Davis and others sitting on steps, with Cobbins walking nearby with his young niece. He said he saw three people dressed in black running toward the corner with guns, and when shots rang out he grabbed his niece and ran—then stopped, turned back, and saw Davis on the ground. He described hearing multiple guns firing and said he was certain Sandifer shot at Davis.
As the investigation widened, prosecutors framed the killing as part of gang conflict. Testimony described friction between the Young Melph Mafia and the 110ers, and investigators presented evidence drawn from phone records, jail calls, and social media. A search warrant executed at a residence on General Taylor Street in June 2012 became part of the narrative; officers seized cellphones, and testimony later indicated that during that search a man identifying himself as “Larry Sandifer” was learned to be Demond Sandifer. The state also introduced evidence about a recorded jail phone call made the night of the killing—placed at 10:00 p.m. on August 14, 2011—between Sandifer and an incarcerated half-brother, Rico Newman, which authorities said involved discussion of the murder. Prosecutors linked these threads to a broader racketeering case aimed at local gang activity, while separating the Davis murder count for trial.
On May 8, 2013, Sandifer was charged by indictment with second-degree murder of Milton Davis committed in furtherance of gang activity. He pleaded not guilty and fought the case through pretrial motions, including challenges to evidence and identifications, but the case moved to a jury. After a three-day trial ending on August 20, 2014, a twelve-person jury found him guilty as charged. The court imposed a life sentence at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension for the murder conviction, along with an additional consecutive gang-enhancement sentence described in court records as “half a life.”
Sandifer appealed, attacking the reliability of identifications that came many months after the shooting and pointing to the silence that had surrounded the case at the start. The appellate court upheld the conviction, concluding that the evidence—particularly the positive identifications—was sufficient for a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the shooter and that the killing furthered gang activity. The court, however, found a sentencing error and vacated the sentences, sending the case back to the trial court for re-sentencing, while leaving the guilty verdict intact.
