‘Scars so deep.’ Pasco school bus murder hearing raises raw emotions

Nancy Lenhart can list the number of days it’s been since her husband was killed on a Pasco school bus — four years, nine months and two days.

“We never dreamed that our journey through the justice system would be a trial of patience, strength and endurance,” she said Friday during the sentencing hearing for Joshua D. Davis.

Lenhart hoped that Friday’s emotion-packed hearing would close the book on the case against the 39-year-old Richland man.

But Judge Jackie Shea-Brown said she needed more time to review hundreds of pages of arguments and exhibits and hours of hearings before making her decision.

The lack of a conclusion left the grieving widow in tears in the Franklin County courtroom.

A jury convicted Davis in November of premeditated first-degree murder with a deadly weapon following a three-week trial. They also found Davis’ September 2021 attack displayed deliberate cruelty and affected the children on the bus.

Davis, who suffers from schizophrenia, boarded a school bus outside Longfellow Elementary as children were waiting to be taken home. He stabbed the bus driver Richard “Dick” Lenhart 13 times after a short conversation.

While Davis pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, jurors found he understood what he was doing and that it was wrong.

Pasco schools Superintendent Michelle Whitney told the judge Friday the attack left a scar in the community and shattered the peace of staff, teachers, parents and children.

“I’m here on behalf of a community that is still grieving, still healing and still trying to understand how this devastating act could occur in a place entrusted with their children,” she said. “There are events in the community that leave scars so deep that they alter the collective soul of them.”

Davis remained quiet during the hearing, and spent most of it staring straight ahead.

But Davis’ mother Andrea Cervantes asked Shea-Brown to consider his future in light his mental illness.

“Josh is still young and with proper oversight and strict oversight, I believe he can reach a place where he is not a risk to himself or to others,” she said.

Grieving family

Nancy Lenhart’s two children also spoke. They said the sudden loss of a father, grandfather and great-grandfather was profound.

“The impact that this has had on my sister and I has been hard,” said Bruce Hockaday. “He was our constant that came into our lives and stayed. We became his kids, and we loved him for that.”

Nancy Lenhart, who attended every day of the trial, explained that the man who was murdered was more than just a bus driver.

“His value cannot be measured monetarily, but can be felt by the grief that arose from the many who have mourned his loss, and by those who are still doing so,” she said.

She said he worked hard and committed to any job he took on and was the type of person who could be counted on. He offered help without being asked.

While his two children weren’t his by birth, his love for them was undeniable, she said. He never called them his stepchildren, instead he said they were his kids.

Beyond the impact on his family, his death prompted a change in state law that provides stronger protection for school bus drivers by making trespassing on a school bus a felony.

Sentencing argument

Davis, who didn’t have any previous criminal convictions, faces a standard sentencing range of 22 and 28 years in prison.

But prosecutors argued Friday that the nature of Davis’ crime warranted an exceptional sentence of 50 years.

Defense attorney Sheri Oertel argued the sentence was not justifiable under current state law, and asked for 25 years. She also suggested that the judge could go below the 22-year minimum end of the range.

Oertel also asked Jackie Shea-Brown to specify that he should be sent to Monroe Correctional Complex which has a unit for mental health treatment.

Shea-Brown scheduled a hearing for the end of July to announce her decision.