Timothy R. Davidson, a 62-year-old white man remembered by his sister as a kind-hearted person who would do anything for anyone, was one of four people killed in a violent spree that crossed two Alabama counties. His family was left searching for reasons why someone would carry out such a senseless act.
Just after midnight on March 14, 2023, deputies from the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office responded to a disturbance call at a home on Ivy Drive in the town of Ragland.
When they arrived, they found 37-year-old Amber L. Manning in the driveway, dead from gunshot wounds. Inside the home, deputies discovered Davidson, who had also been shot. He was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where he died from his injuries. A witness, Amber Manning's husband Shane, later told reporters that Davidson had been shot in his sleep. Shane Manning also witnessed his wife being shot after she bravely approached the gunman’s car when he returned to the scene.
Hours later, the investigation took a dramatic turn when Daniel Parker Watson, then 28, approached a police officer in the nearby city of Leeds. Watson confessed to the two killings in Ragland and also admitted to murdering two other people in Birmingham. He gave officers the location of the second crime scene, and Birmingham police were dispatched to a home in the city’s East Lake neighborhood. There, they found the bodies of Tiffany Michele Hernandez and Jason Joseph Brown, who had both been fatally shot. Investigators believe the Birmingham murders occurred before Watson traveled to St. Clair County.
Watson, a resident of Pell City, was taken into custody and booked into the St. Clair County Jail. He was charged with capital murder and murder for the deaths of Timothy Davidson and Amber Manning. He also faced capital murder charges in Jefferson County for the Birmingham homicides. A motive was not established, but authorities believed Watson knew at least some of his victims. Shane Manning said he and his wife had been friends with Watson for a decade and that Amber had often watched Watson's children.
In May 2023, a St. Clair County judge ruled there was enough evidence to send the case against Watson for the deaths of Davidson and Manning to a grand jury. Watson’s legal proceedings for the Birmingham killings moved forward first. In September 2025, a Jefferson County jury convicted Daniel Parker Watson of two counts of capital murder for the deaths of Tiffany Hernandez and Jason Brown. The jury recommended the death penalty, and he was sentenced to death.
As of that month, Watson’s capital murder trial in St. Clair County for the deaths of Timothy R. Davidson and Amber L. Manning was scheduled to begin on October 6, 2025.
