Inset left: Gregory Keyier-Deniro Davis (Oakland County Jail). Inset right: Annie Salem Namou Somo (Obituary). Background: The car dealership where Davis shot and killed Namou in Ferndale, Mich. (Google Maps).
A Michigan man will be spending the rest of his life behind bars for trapping and brutally killing his ex-girlfriend in front of their child.
In April, Gregory Keyier-Deniro Davis, 46, was convicted by a jury in Oakland County on all eight counts he faced, including one count each of premeditated murder in the first degree, assault with intent to murder, felon in possession of a firearm, and felonious assault, as well as four counts of felony firearm as a second offense in connection with the death of 40-year-old Annie Salem Namou Somo.
On Monday, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a mandatory sentence in the Wolverine State, for the murder of Namou. The judge also sentenced Davis to multiple additional prison terms for the lesser offenses.
Michigan does not have the death penalty and is one of three jurisdictions that has never executed a person since joining the U.S.
The underlying incident occurred on May 20, 2023, at the Legend Motors car dealership on Eight Mile Road in Ferndale — a small town and inner-ring suburb of Detroit — where the victim worked.
On the day in question, Namou brought her then-10-year-old daughter to work — and the girl saw all the horrific violence unfold.
Around 8:40 a.m. that Saturday, the defendant followed his ex-girlfriend into the parking lot and used his vehicle to pin her vehicle and keep her from getting away. The woman eventually managed to get out of her car and tried to flee for help, but Davis shot her with a 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun as she ran.
Then the killer approached his victim and fired again. The second shot was fired at close range, jurors heard during the trial.
The scene unfolded as the couple's daughter watched from the passenger seat of her mother's vehicle, prosecutors repeatedly told the jury, according to a courtroom report by New Media Detroit.
Then, the defendant fired multiple shots at onlookers in the parking lot. Davis is also said to have stolen the gun he used in the crime.
The defendant surrendered to police later that same day.
In comments to the online news outlet, a family member asked for it to be reported that Namou was "an incredible woman and mother."
"I thank the jury for delivering justice for Annie Namou and her loved ones," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said last month. "Children and women, like Annie, are too often endangered by intimate partners, and it is unacceptable. We will never forget her and never stop fighting for victims of intimate partner violence."
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