By Marc Klaas

He was a trapped rat trying desperately to claw his way out of the sewer.

On December 4, 1993, William White, a long time acquaintance and co-worker visited Polly’s killer in jail. White subtly informed the killer that a palm print found in Polly’s bedroom implicated him in the crime. Davis told White that he couldn’t “go back to the joint as a child molester.”

The killer asked sheriff’s deputies to contact lead investigator, Sgt. Mike Meese of the Petaluma Police Department, whom he had first met earlier in the day.

On the telephone, the killer told Sgt. Meese, “I f***** up big time,” and offered to spill his guts in exchange for two packs of Camel cigarettes, a smoking room and protective custody.

The killer tried to plea bargain, but Meese told him that, “It’s not my decision.”

The killer entered the interrogation room in shackles and an orange jumpsuit. Meese removed the cuffs and the killer asked for Kleenex and a cup of coffee. The subsequent video paints a vivid portrait of an astute, manipulative predator attempting to thrust and parry his way to a life term.

The sniveling killer pulls cigarettes out of the pack like swords. Manipulative patterns emerge as he chain smokes and drinks coffee with a sure, steady hand. He feeds Meese a calculated scenario designed to redeem himself. He was “drunk and drugged up,” and the next thing he knew she just appeared in the car. He treated her well and allowed her go to the bathroom. She waited patiently for him on the hill. Then he strangled her. “I was standing behind her. She didn’t know what hit her,” he unflinchingly tells Meese. “I didn’t do nothing to her sexually,” he offers. Maneuvers designed to erase the special circumstances that condemn him to death.

He used similar manipulations on the girls in Polly’s bedroom. Divert their attention by calmly telling them that money is the target, not them. He did it again to the deputies on Pythian Road. Make them think that he was not a threat by acting outrageous and self assured. Steely nerve and cowardly acts are the patterns of his life.

We know two things. He killed Polly and he led them to her body. The truth will not allow this rat to claw his way out of the sewer. He is trapped. His fate has been predetermined. He just doesn’t know it yet.