- Gabriel Michael Davies, 17, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the murder of his mother’s ex-boyfriend
- Justin Yoon, Davies’ friend was also sentenced as he assisted him with the crime
- Davies also faked his disappearance just days after he murdered Daniel McCaw
A teenager who faked his own disappearance has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after her robbed and murdered his mother’s ex-boyfriend.
Gabriel Michael Davies, 17, and his friend Justin Yoon, 17, who helped him burglarize and murder Daniel McCaw, 51, both pleaded guilty in court in September.
‘I’m a kid that made a mistake and I know it was a horrible mistake, but that does not define who I am,’ Davies said in court at the time.
Davies and Yoon were sentenced on Friday to 12 years in prison and two years and nine months in community custody.
McCaw’s body wasn’t discovered until four days after his murder, and during that time Davies staged his own disappearance before he was found two days later.
Davies and Yoon were caught on home surveillance footage outside of McCraw’s home on August 28, 2022.
Authorities said that the video revealed that the two boys snuck into the man’s house through the dog door an hour before McCraw entered his residence and never emerged.
The teenagers were then seen exiting the home through the side door as they ran to and from the garage and carried items.
McCraw was found shot to death on September 1, 2022, after authorities visited his Orting home on a welfare check.
When they entered his home, they said the house wreaked of a decaying body and that the man was found lifeless in the laundry room with gun shots and stab wounds on his body.
On August 31, 2022, Davies, a football player at Olympia High School never showed up for practice and was reported missing.
His car was found two days later near Tenino. Officers found items thrown all over the vehicle, blood stains and a shattered cell phone outside.
Court documents revealed that Davies told authorities that he ‘admitted to damaging his cell phone because he was afraid that the police were going to find what was on it.’
He also told cops that he couldn’t recollect where he went during his suspected disappearance.
During Davies’ suspected disappearance police discovered that McCraw had previously been in a relationship with the teenager’s mother.
In the span of 24 hours, Davies and Yoon, who were both 16, at the time were arrested for McCaw’s murder.
‘I will make sure that I live the rest of my life making this right,’ Yoon said in court.
KOMO News reported that on September 2, 2022, Davies’s father called the police and told them that ‘Gabe was involved’ in the victim’s death.
He also said that his son was apparently approached by ‘biker dudes’ that new McCaw, who then asked the teenager to steal something from the victims house.
Prosecutors argued that there was never any evidence that proved that Davies was approached by the biker gang and that the story was fabricated in order to cover up his crimes.
Both boys were arrested and charged as adults for second-degree murder, burglary and the unlawful possession of a firearm. They were held in jail on $1milllion bail since last year.
Prior to their sentencing, the two pleaded guilty in September 2023 and were then held without bail.
Davies said: ‘I know I’ve taken away something so precious that can never be returned, and I will forever be sorry.’
During the sentencing, the victim’s mother Veronica McCaw said that she decided not to show her husband their son’s crime scene photos in fear that ‘he would drop dead’.
A motive for the murder is still unknown, but Davies told the court that ‘this will never happen again’.
