A former Gwinnett County high school teacher sat before a Houston County jury on Monday as prosecutors and defense attorneys offered starkly different explanations for how her 2-year-old son died nearly six years ago. Kianna Davis, now 35, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including malice murder, felony murder, second-degree murder, cruelty to children, and aggravated assault. The case centers on the November 2020 death of Karter Ambrose, whose injuries were not fully understood until a medical examiner completed an autopsy.
Opening statements took place Monday, July 13, in Houston County Superior Court in Perry, Georgia. The trial is expected to stretch across multiple days, with the state and defense already staking out opposing theories of what happened inside the home Davis shared with her then-boyfriend, Kiyon Devoy Benton.
A Sudden Collapse, Then a Devastating Discovery
Prosecutor Justin Duane told jurors that Karter was rushed into his pediatrician’s office on November 17, 2020, wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt. The toddler’s pulse was fading, his body was cold to the touch, and his eyes had rolled back in his head as clinic staff scrambled to perform CPR and call 911. He was pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital.
At first, Duane said, it looked like a straightforward tragedy. Karter had a documented history of medical issues, including asthma, and Davis’s own attorney would go on to describe him in his opening statement as a “sickly child.” Duane told the jury that impression didn’t survive contact with the evidence: “At first glance, this looked like a child that had succumbed to this breathing issue. Until the autopsy was performed.”
That autopsy, Duane said, told a different story. A medical examiner determined Karter’s cause of death was blunt force injury to his abdomen, which lacerated his liver. Duane told jurors the child also had injuries to his torso, his genitalia, and his head. “This is a homicide, no doubt about it,” he said.
The State Declines to Point a Single Finger
Rather than argue that Davis alone delivered the fatal injuries, Duane took a different tack, telling jurors not to get hung up on assigning blame between Davis and Benton individually. Karter, he said, was in the joint custody of his mother and her boyfriend at the time of his death, and Benton has also been charged and has pleaded not guilty.
Duane anticipated the jury’s instinct to sort out exactly who struck the child and pushed back on it directly. He told jurors the beatings occurred only when Davis, Benton, or both had sole access to Karter, and that the law does not require the state to prove which of them swung. As Duane put it to the jury, both defendants are “parties to each other’s crimes.”
The Defense: A Sickly Child and No Burden to Explain
Defense attorney Jeffrey Grube spent his opening statement reminding jurors that the state carries the entire burden of proof. Davis, he said, does not have to offer any explanation for how her son was hurt or died. “She doesn’t have to. It’s not her burden,” Grube told the jury, adding that Davis need not prove her son died from falling off a bed, bumping into a table, or an accident on his bicycle.
Grube pointed to a series of statements Davis gave to police and others over the years, in which she offered several possible explanations for Karter’s injuries. Those included that he had jumped off a couch, that he suffered from diabetes, and that he had been hurt while riding his bike. Grube did not have to prove any of these explanations true, only remind jurors that the state must exclude reasonable doubt.
Grube also raised an alibi-style argument tied to Davis’s job. At the time of Karter’s death, she was working as a teacher in the Houston County School District through a program with Central Georgia Technical College. Grube told the jury that on the specific dates prosecutors allege Karter was injured, his client was in a classroom, teaching.
Pediatric Clinic Staff Describe a Chaotic Emergency
The state’s first witnesses were staff from the pediatric clinic where Karter was brought in on the morning of November 17, 2020, and their accounts painted a picture of a office thrown into sudden crisis. Taylor Sledge Ragsdale, a receptionist, testified that a man carried a limp child into the office and said he needed help; the boy was lifeless and not moving, and Ragsdale said the man did not appear overly concerned in the moment.
Emily Baker, another staff member at Primary Pediatrics, testified that she responded to a call about a lifeless child and helped bring him into a room. She said the boy’s feet were white, his eyes were rolled to the back of his head, and the man who brought him in explained that the child had been vomiting the night before. That man told staff he had given the boy a breathing treatment at home, and Baker said it seemed as though the child may have had a seizure before arriving at the clinic.
Pediatric nurse practitioner Amanda Gattie testified that she ran to get a doctor after someone in the office said the child was unresponsive. She began speaking with the man who brought Karter in, who identified himself as the child’s stepfather and said the boy had experienced breathing problems overnight.
A fourth staff member, Megan Kelly, testified that she also interacted with the man who brought Karter in and believed he was on the phone with the child’s mother at the time. Kelly said the man described the child as having been vomiting, having diarrhea, and being lethargic.
Registered nurse Lisa James described the moment the unresponsive child was brought in for emergency care. She testified that Karter was not breathing, had no pulse, was cold to the touch, and was covered head to toe in water. James confirmed the child was deceased.
What Comes Next
With opening statements complete and the first wave of clinic witnesses on the record, the trial now moves into its next phase, which is expected to include additional medical and investigative testimony. Benton, the co-defendant, has not yet been scheduled for his own trial. JusticeFaces.com will continue following the case as testimony continues.