Experts to clash over sanity of accused Pasco school bus driver killer

Four years ago, Joshua D. Davis stabbed a 72-year-old Pasco bus driver to death in front of a bus full of children.

The story of Richard “Dick” Lenhart’s murder grabbed national headlines and spurred a new law in Washington, but Davis’ murder trial had been delayed many times while experts debated his sanity.

Now a jury will determine if the now 38-year-old Richland man understood what he was doing on Sept. 24, 2021.

Davis has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

Franklin County prosecutors and defense mental health experts agree that Davis has schizophrenia, but they disagree on whether the condition caused him to be legally insane at the time.

A jury has been picked, and opening statements are set to begin Wednesday.

But first, attorneys argued in pre-trial hearings last week and again on Monday about some pieces of evidence that prosecution experts wanted to testify about.

After a series of hearings over 10 months, a ruling by Judge Jackie Shea Brown means a jury will decide whether he was legally sane at that time.

Last week, Shea Brown also decided that a prosecution expert will be limited on what he can testify about.

The expert won’t be allowed to tell jurors about Davis’ decision not to speak to police after the stabbing because that was his constitutional right.

Prosecution expert Richard Yocum is expected to testify that his opinion of Davis’ sanity is based on the actions Davis took that day.

Defense expert Alexander Patterson is expected to testify that Davis has a lengthy history of mental illness. The mental condition left an otherwise healthy man in debilitating pain, and unable to understand the difference between wrong and right, said the defense.

Roommate letter testimony

One of key part of Yocum’s analysis was a note Davis left for his roommate and longtime friend Laura Astudillo-Ocampo in her bedroom.

The letter that starts, “Laura, if you are reading this, I have murdered children,” shows that Davis understood right from wrong, since it suggests that he knew he would be arrested, Yocum has said.

The rest of the letter tells her what to do with Davis’ two new kittens.

But defense attorneys believe it doesn’t relate to the crime since no children were killed and there wasn’t an attempt to kill children.

“There is no evidence about when the letter was written, or by whom, only speculation that Joshua Davis wrote it,” the defense attorneys wrote in a pre-trial motion.

On Monday, Astudillo-Ocampo appeared by video to testify before the trial begins about discovering the letter after returning from a trip.

She’s known Davis nearly 20 years. They were both in high school and helped distribute software and hardware to classrooms in the Pasco School District.

She lost track of him after high school, but occasionally saw him around town.

“It was like that for many years. We didn’t keep constant contact, but whenever I saw him, I would stop and chat with him,” Astudillo-Ocampo said.

She heard from Davis late in 2020 that he would be moving out of his Kennewick apartment, and she offered him a room for $450 a month.

Then early in September 2021, Astudillo-Ocampo testified that she left on a trip and while she was gone, he was supposed to be watching her cat and two dogs.

He texted to say that he’d also brought home two kittens.

When she returned, she discovered the house was trashed. Garbage had been strewn around the house, her curtains were cut up, and her couches were wrecked.

She found her bedroom disorganized and items in places where they didn’t belong. She discovered Davis’ cellphone, and the note was on her bed.

She testified that she recognized the handwriting.

“I remember reading the first line, and it was addressed to me,” she testified. “The first line, it just broke me, and I didn’t want to read it anymore.”

Defense attorney Sheri Oertel challenged Astudillo-Ocampo about her memory. Pointing out that, she gave different information about when Davis moved in, her meeting with Davis’ mother and about the kittens.

Astudillo-Ocampo said she watched a video of her first interview about the letter, and said she believed it was a more accurate about what happened.

Oertel also noted that there was a period when Davis came home and texted her that the door was open.

Oerte also questioned how long it had been since she’d last seen Davis’ writing, and Astudillo-Ocampo said she had seen it during their time working together, but not since.

A ruling on whether the letter will be allowed at the trial is yet to be decided.

This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.