SUSPECT FACING DEATH PENALTY
By Gavin Engelbrecht

Northern Echo
Nov 21 2008
UK

A NORTH-EAST man will face the death penalty if he is found guilty
of a double murder in the US, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Neil Revill has spent seven years on remand in a US jail awaiting
trial for the murder of a Californian drug dealer and his girlfriend.

The 36-year-old, from Consett, County Durham, will finally appear
before a court next month when he will be given a trial date.

Police arrested Mr Revill after the double killing of 22- year-old
Arthur Davodian, who was beheaded, and Kimberley Crayton, in October
2001.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s (DA) office said last
night that if Mr Revill is convicted of the most serious charges –
that the murders involved the aggravating factor of torture – it
would press for the death penalty, which under California state law
would mean execution either by lethal injection or gas.

Mr Davodian was murdered in the flat he shared with 21- year-old
Ms Crayton.

He was stabbed 17 times in the body, before his head was severed.

It was found ten days later by a boy in the front yard of a masonic
lodge.

Police believe that, while the first murder was being carried out,
Ms Crayton – the niece of jazz singer Al Jarreau – had locked herself
in their bedroom. The killer or killers then smashed down the door
and murdered her.

Her 14-month-old daughter, who was in the flat at the time, survived.

Mr Revill was arrested a month later.

He has been held at a maximum security prison ever since.

Mr Revill, who is likely to face trial in the same courthouse in which
OJ Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his wife, has been charged
with the murders of both victims and the special circumstances "that
the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture".

The prosecution alleges that the murders were committed while Mr Revill
"was engaged in the commission of… a robbery".

He is also charged with drug dealing and assaulting another woman,
Ersen Tanitkan, with a knife.

He will appear in court on December 10.

A spokesman for the DA’s Office said last night: "Mr Revill now has
new attorneys, and they have requested more time to review the case
and prepare for trial.

"Our prosecutor does not anticipate the case going to trial before
later next year."

She added: "Our office will be seeking the death penalty if he is
convicted of the special circumstance murders."

Mr Revill has consistently denied any involvement in the killings,
which shocked Los Angeles, a city used to violent crime.

His parents, Graham and Brenda, who now live in Australia, are standing
by their son. Speaking last year, Mr Revill said: "He is innocent. I
have every confidence that he will be found not guilty."

Neil Revill, who is partiallysighted and suffers from acute dyslexia,
was born in Consett but as a child moved to Germany, where his father
was stationed with the RAF.

Later he returned to County Durham and lived with his grandfather
in Stanley, before he moved to Sunderland, where he lived with his
girlfriend for 18 months while he worked as a kitchen salesman.

While backpacking around Europe, he met and married a US law student
and moved to the States, where he became involved in the drug scene
prior to the murders.

Although there were no witnesses or confession, and no murder weapon
was discovered, Mr Revill’s DNA was found at the murder scene.

Mr Revill says Mr Davodian was his friend and that he was at the
apartment the night before the killings as a guest.

His supporters have also said that Mr Davodian was a police informant,
who had given evidence against leading Armenian and Israeli gangsters,
whose punishment for informers is decapitation.

Human rights charity Reprieve, which is campaigning to end the death
penalty, and UK law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, have been
helping with a UK-based investigation into the case.

The charity declined to comment.