Gervonta Davis pleaded guilty Thursday morning in a Baltimore courtroom to four counts stemming from his hit-and-run accident in November 2020 in his hometown.
The Baltimore Sun reported on its website that Davis will be sentenced May 5.
Davis is still expected to face rival Ryan Garcia in a pay-per-view showdown April 15 in Las Vegas. Their teams remain in the process of finalizing their contracts, but an official announcement of their 12-round, 136-pound fight is imminent.
Davis was supposed to stand trial Thursday on numerous misdemeanor motor vehicle charges related to the abovementioned hit-and-run crash. He waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty to four charges – leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failure to locate and notify an owner of unattended property damage, driving with a revoked license and failure to stop at a red light.
The 28-year-old Davis could be sentenced to jail time May 5.
According to an investigation into the two-car accident, Davis drove his Lamborghini through a red light and collided with the side of a 2004 Toyota Solara in the early-morning hours of November 5, 2020. The driver of the Toyota and three passengers suffered cuts, bruises and other injuries that required them to be transported to a nearby hospital.
Davis helped an unidentified woman out of the passenger’s seat of his SUV, but he left the scene of that accident before authorities arrived.
An attorney for Davis and prosecutors offered a plea agreement to Baltimore City Circuit judge Melissa Phinn in September, which would’ve required Davis to serve 60 days of unsupervised home confinement. Phinn rejected that plea deal and instead ordered a trial, largely because of testimony from Jyair Smith, the woman who drove the Toyota that Davis’ car struck.
Smith has sued Davis because she said she suffered a serious knee injury in the accident that has left her incapable of playing with her children and working without interruption, even after she underwent extensive physical therapy. Smith also stated that Davis didn’t offer her or any of her three passengers assistance before he left the scene.
Though Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) is already training for his fight against Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs), he also is expected to be arraigned as part of a separate case February 23 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he’ll face a misdemeanor domestic violence charge of battery causing bodily harm.
Davis, who pleaded not guilty in that case, was arrested December 27 in Parkland, Florida for allegedly striking Vanessa Posso, the mother of the younger of Davis’ two daughters, on the right side of her head.
A police report of that incident indicated that Davis hit Posso with a “closed hand type slap” and caused an abrasion on the inside of her right lip. Posso, who called 911, recanted her story soon thereafter in a statement posted on Instagram, in which she stated that Davis “did not harm me or our daughter.”
Davis was released December 28 on $1,000 bail after spending one night in a Broward County correctional facility.
Just 11 days following that arrest, Davis stopped previously unbeaten Hector Luis Garcia early in the ninth round of their WBA world lightweight title fight January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
By Keith Idec