Myisha Ferrell plea adds clarity, confusion to case

Myisha Ferrell's one-second-to-midnight plea deal an hour ago sheds light on the case while also keeping most of it still in the dark in the murder of Jessie Marie Davis.

After a week's worth of jury selection and a mountain of pages and meetings to coordinate media coverage and community access, the court accepted Ferrell's short admission of guilt to obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse. She'll serve two years and must testify against the alleged killer, Canton Police Officer Bobby Cutts.

Heading in to the case today, journalists and the rest of the community had hoped that testimony in Ferrell's trial would provide details of the Davis case not yet released. Investigators have kept the evidence close at hand, and a judge's gag order has kept witnesses and others close to the case from sharing anything either.

Ferrell's case would have been the first glimpse into what happened that fateful day in June. What part did Ferrell actually play? At what point did Cutts allegedly ask for her involvement? Did Cutts tell her why he did whatever it is that he did? Did Cutts admit to killing Davis or did he tell Ferrell that Jessie was already dead when he got there?

Now .. we wait for Cutts' scheduled capital case in February. Meanwhile, we at least know that Ferrell has admitted to her role as an accomplice.

My sources gave me no indication last week that the two sides were in any way close to a plea. Not sure if this all came together over the weekend or whether the plea had quietly been on the table for some time.

If there's an additional byproduct of today's plea that provides good news is that Davis' family didn't have to listen to testimony surrounding the charge of gross abuse of a corpse. The lack of testimony also protects key details in the case from potential jurors for Bobby Cutts' trial.

Still, how important is Ferrell's testimony for prosecutors to get a conviction with Cutts? Makes you wonder who pushed for today's plea -- prosecutors who feel her testimony against Cutts is a must to get a conviction? or a defense that knew it was in deep trouble and looked to lessen the damage.

Guess we'll find out in February -- maybe.