Stephanie Davis remembers seeing Benjamin D. Pate wearing a "Tupac Shakur" T-shirt hours before he allegedly slit her sister's throat in December.
Ironically, emblazoned across the back of the T-shirt are the words "Stop the violence." A picture of Shakur, the self-proclaimed gangster and hip-hop artist who was gunned down in 1996, graces the front.The T-shirt, found in a garbage bin with the victim's blood splattered on it, is the most incriminating piece of evidence that prosecutors presented against Pate during a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
At the conclusion of the hearing, 3rd District Judge Anthony Quinn said there was enough circumstantial evidence for Pate, 28, to stand trial on one count of murder, a first-degree felony, for the Christmas Day slaying of his girlfriend, Allison Nicole Davis, 21.
Pate is scheduled for arraignment April 5 before Judge Sandra Peuler.
Allison Davis' last Christmas began without incident, Stephanie Davis testified. She spent the morning with Pate, her live-in boyfriend, her two young children, her mother and her sister.
Stephanie Davis said she left the apartment, at 8483 S. Eastbridge Road (190 West), about noon, but she returned later that night. Before leaving about 10 p.m., she noticed Allison "seemed a little depressed."
Allison Davis had met Pate about 18 months before her death. The two became engaged about six months after meeting, and had a son six months later.
But for some reason, Pate had decided to return to his native Illinois. A few days before her sister's death, Stephanie Davis heard Pate say that he was planning to take a bus back, she testified.
Prosecutor Kent Morgan said Allison's family was aware that Pate had plans to leave Utah permanently.
Nobody knows exactly what happened between the time Stephanie Davis left the apartment and 11:30 p.m.
At that time, Midvale Police officer Brian Holdaway responded to a medical call at the residence. When he arrived, he found Allison Davis lying on the floor blocking the front door, he testified.
Holdaway said that Pate, who was not in custody at the time, told him he had left the apartment for an hour and had found Allison on the floor when he returned.
But while looking for a possible murder weapon, detective Doug McGrath said he found a plastic bag containing several clothing items, including the Shakur T-shirt, in a Dumpster behind the apartment building.
Stephanie Davis testified that the T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants matched the ones Pate was wearing before she left that night.
Pilar Shortsleeve, DNA supervisor at the Utah Crime Lab, testified that DNA from blood splattered on the T-shirt matched Allison Davis' profile. She also said Pate could not be ruled out as the source of some less concentrated DNA also found on the shirt.
Police found "hundreds" of knives at the apartment that could have been used to slash Allison Davis' throat, Morgan said. Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Edward Leis testified an autopsy revealed the victim had possibly been strangled before she was cut.
Allison Davis' infant son and her 5-year-old daughter have been in the care of relatives since her death.