Gabriel Michael Davis (left and center) and Justin Jiwoon Yoon (right) pleaded guilty on Sept. 06, 2023 to murdering Daniel McCaw in a burglary. (Screenshots from court: The Tacoma News Tribune; football image of Davies: Thurston County Sheriff’s Office)
A high school football player and his co-defendant pleaded guilty to murdering his mother’s former lover.
Gabriel Michael Davies and Justin Jiwoon Yoon were 16 years old on Aug. 28, 2022, when they broke into the home of Daniel McCaw, 51, in Pierce County, Washington, and fatally shot him.
Authorities said surveillance footage depicted the boys sneaking in through the dog door. Less than an hour later, McCaw left his detached garage and entered the residence, never to emerge. Davies and Yoon exited the home through the side door before running back and forth to the garage, carrying items.
And yet Davies initially landed on law enforcement radar not as a suspect but as a possible victim. Deputies in Thurston County said that the teenager, a football player at Olympia High School, was missing on Sept. 1, 2022, after he did not show up to practice, leading to an exhaustive search for him.
His truck turned up near the city of Tenino by the 16100 block Tilley Road S — the keys remained in the ignition, there was blood inside the vehicle, the driver’s side door was open, and a cellphone was found smashed on the ground, but investigators saw no sign of Davies. Deputies said his father, the vehicle’s registered owner, told them that he was supposed to be going to football practice.
Investigators eventually found him the next day on Sept. 2, 2022, at the 13600 block of Tilley Road S.
Thurston County Sheriff John Sanza told reporters in a press conference that Davies had been walking alone. The teenager told authorities he was wandering around for the previous 24 hours, the lawman said.
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Eventually, however, investigators tied Davies and Yoon to McCaw’s death. They said the young football player staged his own disappearance.
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The teenagers, now 17, pleaded down from murder in the first degree to murder in the second degree on Wednesday, Pierce County records show. Sentencing is set for Nov. 3.
In court documents, Davies acknowledged that he and Yoon killed the victim “with the intent to cause the death of another person.”
He acknowledged that the standard sentencing range is between 10 years and three months to 18 years and four months, but also faces a maximum term of life. Davies also faces three months of community custody and a $50,000 fine.
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