Two men were linked by Phoenix detectives to the killing of Zariah Finley Dodd, the pregnant 16-year-old whose body was discovered in a west Phoenix park in early July, over the course of an investigation that spanned nearly a month, according to recently filed court documents.
Police announced on Aug. 1 that officers had arrested Jurrell Davis, 36, and Jechri James-Gillett, 18, on multiple felony counts, including first-degree murder, in connection with Zariah’s death. Davis, who police say impregnated Zariah, also faces a sexual misconduct with a minor charge. Both men are being held on $1 million cash-only bonds.
Officers responded to Marivue Park near 55th Avenue and Osborn Road about 6 a.m. on July 5 and found Zariah’s body face down in the grass with a gunshot wound to the head.
It took investigators several days to identify her.
On July 9, a Surprise police detective notified Phoenix police that she was looking into the case of a missing girl who had left her group home with a man on the evening of July 4 and never returned, according to a police summary of investigators’ work filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Aug. 5.
The missing girl’s physical description — a Black teenage girl with red hair who wore a nose ring and had braces — matched the body found in Marivue Park. Dental records established the dead girl was Zariah.
Teen killed before she could be interviewed about her pregnancy
Zariah Finley Dodd is seen in this undated photo. The pregnant 16-year-old was found dead, the victim of a gunshot, at a Phoenix park, police said.
Early in their investigation, detectives interviewed Zariah’s Arizona Department of Child Safety caseworker, who confirmed the girl had lived at a group home in Surprise, court documents said.
The caseworker told investigators that Zariah was pregnant and believed Davis was the father.
Zariah had told the caseworker that Davis coerced her into having sex in December 2024 when she was 15, documents said. The caseworker said the girl feared what Davis would do with the handgun he had if she refused, according to the court documents.
Zariah told the caseworker that Davis stopped talking to her after she told him about the pregnancy. She was scheduled to have an official interview about her relationship with Davis and her pregnancy on July 8, according to court documents.
Surveillance footage captured Zariah with two men on night of July 4
Detectives spoke with girls who lived at the group home with Zariah. Two girls said James-Gillett was her “current boyfriend,” according to court documents.
One girl told police that James-Gillett would go for weeks without contacting Zariah but would want to meet occasionally for sex, court documents said. The girl later identified Davis as being the father of Zariah’s child.
The girl told police she met Davis and James-Gillett only once at a park and described Davis as “having anger issues, weird, and owning firearms,” according to the court records.
She said Zariah was excited to see James-Gillett on July 4, according to court documents.
When staff at the residence denied Zariah’s request to spend time with James-Gillett on the holiday, she asked for permission to walk around the block. She was given permission and left, and James-Gillett picked her up, according to court documents.
Convenience store surveillance footage was the last record of Zariah alive that was mentioned in the police narrative. QuikTrip cameras captured her with Davis and James-Gillett at about 8:40 p.m. on July 4, according to court documents.
Another girl told investigators that she overheard Zariah and James-Gillett having an argument during a phone call a few days before her death, the court records said.
Accused men had photos of investigators at death scene, police say
Officers arrested Davis at the parking lot of his Phoenix apartment on July 15 on suspicion of unlawfully having a firearm after they noticed a handgun in his pocket while watching him, court documents said.
Investigators obtained a warrant to search his apartment, where they found a second handgun underneath a pillow on his bed, court documents said. Davis “acknowledged” a handgun found in a vehicle with him but denied knowing about the handgun found in his apartment, according to court documents.
Information extracted from a phone associated with James-Gillett found in Davis’ apartment included text messages between the men that included links to news articles about Zariah’s body being found, along with pictures of investigators at the scene shortly after her body was found, court documents said.
The messages were exchanged before Zariah had been publicly identified, police said in the court records.
Younger man tells officials he was ordered to kill teen, court records say
While Davis was already in jail on prohibited possessor charges and then was arrested on first-degree murder and sexual misconduct with a minor charges, officers arrested James-Gillett at a home in Goodyear on the evening of July 31, according to court documents.
James-Gillett made a “full confession” to killing Zariah when interviewed by detectives but claimed Davis had ordered him to shoot her or else he would kill both of them, court documents said.
The younger man “regretted committing the murder and wished he could take it back,” court documents said.
Davis denied involvement in Zariah’s death, according to the police summary. When investigators confronted him with evidence — including a paternity test that showed Zariah’s unborn child was his — Davis told police he and James-Gillett picked her up in a car on July 4, court documents said.
Davis told police he dropped the two of them off at the park where her body was discovered and met up with some friends, according to court records. He said he returned to the park after he received a text from James-Gillett asking to be picked up before he told Davis he had killed Zariah, court records said.
Davis admitted to having sex with Zariah and knew that she was pregnant, saying it happened while he was drunk, police said.
Attempts to reach Davis, James-Gillett and their lawyers were unsuccessful.
Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@gannett.com or 602-444-2474. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How police say they linked 2 men to Zariah Finley Dodd’s killing