Getaway driver admits role in robberies, but denies having anything to do with murder

Laron Tavon Davis says he was the getaway driver in a series of 2006 Modesto armed robberies that terrorized the community for two months, but he didn’t want to be involved in any shootings.

Even after reading newspaper reports of convenience store clerks shot in some of those robberies, Davis continued to be Edward Deandre Mitchell’s getaway driver, according to Davis’ testimony Wednesday. He says he continued to participate in the robberies up until BK Liquors robbery on June 7, 2006, when Balbir Boyal was shot and killed inside his east Modesto convenience store.

Davis testified that he drove Mitchell everywhere from January through early June in 2006. Mitchell didn’t have a vehicle and relied on Davis to drive him around. But that ended after Boyal was killed.

“After the murder, I tried to separate myself from him,” Davis said on the witness stand.

Mitchell is accused of killing Boyal inside his business on North Riverside Drive. Davis has agreed to a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Mitchell. Davis was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, five counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The defense has suggested that Davis lied to authorities to get his plea deal and avoid identifying James Williams, an Oakland street gang member who was the first to implicate Mitchell in the violent Modesto robberies. Williams named Mitchell on June 13, 2006, when authorities confronted him with incriminating evidence linking Williams to a south Modesto convenience store robbery on May 5, 2006.

During cross-examination Wednesday, Davis’ credibility was challenged with summer 2006 jailhouse visits. Recorded audio of those visits was played for the jury. Davis could be heard explaining how one of his girlfriends was going to serve as his alibi by claiming he was with her when Boyal was shot.

“She might be a value to my case,” Davis said in the recording.

When the defense asked Davis why he needed to have an alibi, he answered “I don’t know. I don’t remember ... I don’t know what I was thinking about at that time.”

Davis testified that he and Mitchell chose to rob BK Liquors that night, because a 7-11 convenience store they had cased just didn’t look right. Boyal tried to defend himself that night when a masked gunman entered his store. He stayed behind the counter, reaching for a baseball bat when he was shot.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Getaway driver admits role in robberies, but denies having anything to do with murder."