Ivy Jean Davis

I know many of us have a joke about how as we age we get meaner. That is especially true of me. I have always been what people call “mouthy,” although the politically correct people call me “blunt.” Apparently it seems that Ivy Jean Davis was the same, although most believe it was brought on by her alcoholism. She had garnered the nickname “Mean Jean” before she ever set foot in prison. She was not exactly unknown to police by then though as she had been arrested upwards of twenty times for offenses. Most of those were alcohol related.

Ivy Jean had met Wallace Davis in 1959. Little is really known about the marriage itself but it does apparently seem obviously it had it's troubles. In early 2007, after forty-seven years of marriage Wallace filed for divorce. A few months later Ivy Jean would be arrested for attempting to hire a hit man to kill Wallace, her son in law and another man who was sometimes described as “her boyfriend's son.” Some reports say that there was another man that she also wanted to have murdered but that is not clear. What is clear is that she told the “hit man” basically she could keep him in business for a while as she apparently had a list of people.

Over the years Ivy Jean and Wallace had acquired several properties in which they rented out. It was said that all but the home they lived in together were in Ivy Jean's name only. One of the tenants that she rented to contacted the Athens Georgia police and reported that Ivy Jean had approached him asking him if he knew anyone who would kill her husband and son in law. Authorities asked the tenant to see if he could get her on audio tape. He quickly did and turned it over to police. An undercover officer posed as a hit man and video taped a meeting with Ivy Jean. This video has been shown on documentary television shows and it is very chilling. At this meeting Ivy Jean gave the officer, who she obviously thought was a hit man, pictures of the victims, instructions on what to do, maps to their homes and even went to an ATM to withdraw $200.00 so he could buy a gun. She was quickly arrested.

Ivy Jean was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder and criminal attempt to commit murder. The judge, at least initially, denied her bond saying that she had a history of disobeying court orders from the past. In March of 2008 Ivy Jean pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal solicitation to commit murder. In her plea deal the remaining charges were dropped. She was sentenced to twenty-five years but was only required to spend the first five years in prison and serve the remaining on probation.

Ivy Jean was released from prison in May of 2012. She had only been out a few days when she tracked down a grandson at his job. He contacted the police claiming she had called his work three times in a row as he hung up on her. His father had been one of Ivy Jean's intended victims. While her probation agreement forbid her from having contact with any of her proposed victims, the grandson was not one of them and was simply told his only recourse could be to file harassment against her. It is unclear if this happened.

While she was released in May, by September she had already violated her probation enough that a judge technically revoked her probation and ordered her to serve another year in jail. However, she got time for credit served and was fitted with an ankle monitor. Then in both February and March of 2013 she was arrested again on probation violations. She had left the county without permission from her probation officer and violated the curfew set. She had also failed to submit a required verification that she had completed a mental health evaluation. She was released on a $5,000 bond. In July of 2013 once again she violated her probation when she went to Wallace's home twice. This time she was ordered to two years in prison and was warned if she violated her probation again after release she would do the remainder of her twenty-five year sentence. At last check with the Department of Correction I did not find her as an inmate. The state website is one in which unless the person is in custody at that current time there is nothing to see and even then generally it is simply what they are serving time for at that moment. I did check the current inmates in the Clarke County jail and she is also not listed. Ivy Jean, if still alive and I have no indication that she is not, would be about seventy-five years old now.

Her attorney had argued that “a psychiatrist” had determined that due to a lifetime of alcohol abuse Ivy Jean lacked the ability to have rational thoughts and that she could not control her impulses. While this could very well be the case it does not seem that it keeps the community, or those close to her safe.