The family of Robert Davis, who is accused of killing journalist Josh Kruger last year, is criticizing the District Attorney’s office for not releasing details about Kruger’s involvement with Davis when he was underaged, and other alleged crimes.
Davis, 20, was charged with murder and other offenses after Kruger’s shooting death last October. His mother said yesterday that her son agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and will be sentenced on Monday. He faces 15 to 30 years in prison, she said.
The family has previously said Davis was 15 when he began a relationship with Kruger involving drugs. Davis told them that before the shooting, Kruger had threatened to post sexually explicit videos of him online, they said.
His mother, Damica Davis, said her son’s attorney told her that evidence obtained from Kruger’s cell phone shows Kruger had victimized her son and also committed other crimes not involving her son. Because of the plea deal, the information will not come out in a trial.
The family held a press conference Wednesday in front of the home on Watkins Street in Point Breeze where Kruger lived and was shot to death.
Damica Davis noted that District Attorney Larry Krasner praised Kruger after he died, and she criticized the DA for not publicly releasing the information from the cell phone.
“I just want people to know what kind of person Josh was and the fact that our district attorney is trying to cover up evidence, as opposed to releasing evidence so people can make their own judgment, and people can do their own investigation on this person and whoever else he was involved in,” she said.
She and her son accept that what he did was wrong, but she also wants the public to know more about Kruger’s activities that preceded the shooting, she said.
Kruger “was friends with a lot of big people in the city. That’s what makes me think that they want to sweep this under the rug, because they want to protect the big dogs of the city,” she said.
Krasner spokesperson Dustin Slaughter said the DA’s office typically does not comment on open criminal cases, but “may have more to say after sentencing.”
Davis’ attorney is public defender Andrea Konow, per the Inquirer. A spokesperson for the Defender Association did not respond to a request for comment and Konow could not be reached.
“A devastating loss”
Kruger, who was 39 when he died, wrote for Billy Penn, WHYY, The Philadelphia Citizen, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other outlets, and had worked as a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Homeless Services.
He often wrote about his experience as an HIV-positive gay man who lived through homelessness and addiction to become an advocate for marginalized communities, and about politics and policy related to the LGBTQ community, drug use, and people living in the street.
His death prompted an outpouring of eulogies. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney wrote that he was “shocked and saddened by Josh Kruger’s death” and said Kruger “cared deeply about our city and its residents”
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman called the shooting “a devastating loss,” and U.S. Sen Bob Casey described Kruger as “a dedicated public servant and journalist whose work shined light on conditions affecting many of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable people.”
Krasner said Kruger “lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities… Josh deserved to write the ending of his personal story.”
The Inquirer subsequently reported that detectives were investigating explicit photos and messages on Kruger’s phone. The material was “disturbing” and was being analyzed by the police department’s Special Victims Unit, which investigates sexual assaults and sexual abuse of children.
Davis was arrested and charged with murder and firearms offenses, and for a separate incident where he allegedly fired a weapon in the Tasker-Morris SEPTA station.
His family, meanwhile, said they’d known for years that he was seeing an older white woman, who they eventually learned was actually a man named Josh, per the Inquirer. Davis was often under the influence of drugs, and would sometimes come home with expensive gifts like Gucci pants, they said.
They once followed him to find out where he was getting drugs and ended up on the block of Watkins Street where Kruger lived, they said.
The revelations led some to call Kruger a sexual predator, and a memorial event at the William Way LGBT Center was canceled. Others defended him, like his friend Justin Robinette, who told the Philadelphia Gay News that Kruger was a compassionate person who would not have acted in the way Davis’ family described.
Even if Kruger was sexually involved with Davis, “it really has nothing to do with his cold-blooded murder,” Robinette said. “Some gay men have sex and do drugs. That’s not a reason to murder someone.”
