[00:00:05] Speaker A: Late into the night on October 12th of 1990, Daisy Manufacturing CEO Richard Daniel returned home to Rogers after a business trip in Chicago.
The house was quiet.
He called out for his wife, Jane.
No answer.
As he searched room by room, he found no sign of her.
Then he made his way to the basement, where he discovered something that would shock northwest Arkansas and set off a murder investigation that still echoes more than three decades later. The man convicted of killing Jane Daniel was sentenced to death and has spent more than 30 years on Arkansas's death row.
Yet despite the sentence, the state has not carried out an execution since 2017.
Now, some are urging Arkansas leaders to restate the process, and they say Jane Daniels murderer should be among the first considered. This is crime in the Ozarks. A burglary, a murder and more than 30 years on Arkansas's death row.
This podcast is a product of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette Community Journalism Project.
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Now let's get into the case.
Part one who was Jane Daniel?
Jane Daniel was born Jane Barclay on April 18th of 1928 in Wichita, Kansas, the daughter of Houston and Martha Patricia Hyde Barclay. As a teenager, she biked across France and Holland in 1946 with a youth group, helping to rebuild hostile damage during World War II. The following year, she began working as an assistant and illustrator for Frank Lebach, a missionary who found the Le Bok literacy method. They traveled to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iran as part of their work. Jane would later graduate from Wichita State University with a fine arts degree. In 1951, she married Lou Taylor, a Chamber of Commerce executive with whom she had three daughters and a son. They lived in seven states before moving from Terre Hoo, Indiana, to northwest Arkansas in 1972. But later that decade, Lou died of a heart attack, leaving Jane widowed. But love was still in the cards for Jane, who would marry Richard Dick Daniel in 1978. Dick was a top executive for Daisy Manufacturing Incorporated and also worked as an executive for FM corporations. Speaking in late 2007, Dick Daniel described his wife as a, quote, lovely lady and peace loving person. Jane was a sister to three siblings, two brothers and one sister, and she was a grandmother to 10 grandchildren. Jane's daughter, Julia Taylor of Estes Park, Colorado wrote in an email several years ago that people forget her mother had a big family and friends who loved her.
She described her mother as a, quote, wonderful and giving woman in a testament to her charitable nature. After she died, her family requested people to donate in her name to the Hungarian Orphanage Relief Fund, the First Presbyterian Church Building Fund, or the Family Reunion Lodge for the YMCA of the rookies in Estes Park, Colorado. While Jane grew up in a Quaker family, in the time of her death, she was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church. She was also a member of the choir and active in various other church activities within her community. Jane was highly regarded, according to those who investigated her death. Mike Jones, who led the Rogers Police Department criminal investigation division at the time, said, quote, usually in an investigation you'll find at least someone with something bad to say.
But we never found one person that had a bad word to say about her.
Part two, a burglary and a murder Based on evidence recovered from the scene, witness testimony and documents from the killer uncovered years later, authorities believe Jane Daniel's final hours unfolded something like this. Dick Daniel, Jane's husband, was out of town on a business trip to Chicago on October 12th of 1990.
Back home in Rogers, 62 year old Jane was having a normal day running errands. She was Last seen at 11:45am at the Rogers Diagnostic Clinic. Later that afternoon, she had a hair appointment scheduled for 2:30pm But Jane never showed up. She never called to cancel.
At some point after returning to 1411 North Woodland Drive, someone entered her house.
Jane Daniel was unaware that just next door, a burglar was rifling through a neighbor's home. Dawn Davis watched as Jane Daniel made her way inside and chose his next target.
The killer was armed with a stolen.44 caliber magnum revolver. As he made his way to the Daniels home, Don Davis walked Jane Daniel through her home at gunpoint, forcing her to give him all of her valuables, which she hid in various places throughout the home. When he was satisfied with his haul, he shot her in the head at point blank range, leaving her body in the basement storage room where her husband would find her around 10:30pm that night. Dick Daniel told the Benton county records newspaper in 2007 that his greatest concern was the terror. The woman he loved must have experienced in the last half hour of her life. Diana Daniel was living with Larry in Gainesville, Florida when they received the phone call. No one ever wants to get, get
[00:05:48] Speaker B: a call and say, we're told that Jane had been murdered.
And so it was, it's. It is unbelievable when you get a call like that. You can't comprehend what's going on.
I have two young children at the time. And we packed up and came up here not knowing who had killed her, why they had killed her, any details, how they got, who got in the house, you know what the details were.
We ended up staying in the house.
Our bedroom that we stayed in was like 10ft away from where she was murdered.
We would hear my father in law would be pacing every night. He was one of the strongest men I've ever met. Met. He was so very strong, smart.
He thought about everything. But he was very controlled and strong and he was.
You could hear him sobbing and walking the floors at night. He had found her.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Part 3 who is Don Davis?
Don Davis was born in November of 1962 and grew up in South Texas.
According to testimony presented during his capital murder trial, he and his older sister were abandoned by their mother when he was still a baby. The siblings were raised by their maternal grandmother until Davis began getting into trouble with law and was sent to children's homes. It was the beginning of a pattern that would continue into adulthood. Before Jane Daniel was killed, Don Davis had racked up no fewer than four felony convictions, including two burglary convictions in Texas, according to court documents. When he wasn't in prison or jail, Don would drink alcohol heavily, something he first started at age 12. After the murder, Don Davis fled the scene. He had borrowed a 1968 Ford Galaxy from a roommate, and when he returned to their home, it was filled with stolen goods. He told his roommates he made a mistake, that someone got hurt. As he brought the stolen property into the home, his girlfriend cried consistently. Then a roommate noticed something wrapped in a towel on the front floorboard of the Galaxy.
She reached for it and Davis stopped her saying, quote, it will be your death sentence if you touch it. He took the object into the house and hid it under the mattress in his bedroom. He later stashed it in a hidden panel of a built in cabinet in the same room. The next day, Davis boarded a bus bound for Las Vegas. A place he said was somewhere, quote, someone could get lost in and never found. Before he left, he told his girlfriend and roommates that throw the object in Beaver Lake. They never did Then on October 3rd, Dick Daniel appeared on television offering a reward for information about his wife's death. After seeing the broadcast, one of Davis's former roommate told her boyfriend, also a roommate, what she knew. Together, they went to the authorities who found the gun they believed was used to kill Jane Daniel hidden in the cabinet. The investigation stretched beyond Arkansas. Police tracked some of the items stolen from the Daniels home and in pawn shops in Las Vegas. One pawn shop owner told police he purchased a small velvet bag that contained jewelry from a man who matched Davis's description. Dick Daniel identified one necklace as belonging to his wife and the bag was also identified by Dick and two daughters as belonging to Jane. Police found an Arnyx Lucien Picard watch and an icon 35 millimeter camera from another pawn shop, which Dick identified as his wife's. The search for Don Davis ended on December 18th of 1990 when FBI agents located him in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was arrested while wearing a black leather Harley Davidson jacket that was later identified as one of the items stolen from the Daniels's neighbor. Davis's capital murder trial lasted more than a month.
So for weeks the Daniels family sat on the front row listening to the gut wrenching testimony and viewing the evidence that told the story of what happened to Jane. A Benton county jury found Davis guilty on March 6th of 1992 and sentence him to die after he was convicted of capital murder. His attorneys pled for a life sentence rather than the death penalty, pointing to his rough upbringing. His father, Harry Davis of Houston took the stand saying Don's mother got custody of him after the couple separated not long after he was born. She then abandoned him when he was younger than 1 years old. Harry Davis testified, saying, quote, his mother room and boarded him out. Don Davis's defense attorney painted him as someone who, quote, did not have the chances most of us have in Life.
Speaking in 2017, Deborah Salings, who was a lawyer for Davis for more than 15 years, said over his years on death row he's grown wiser rather than becoming more embittered and mean.
She said he was a book reader, enjoyed TV shows about nature.
She called him loyal and thoughtful, saying he cared about other inmates. Speaking to a TV station in 2015 about Jane Daniels murder, Don Davis expressed regret for his actions and sadness for the pain he caused her family. He called the killing, quote, an act of cowardice.
It was cold blooded.
It was evil. Diana Daniel, who was married to Dick Daniel's son Larry, recently spoke on how Don Davis appeared during his capital murder trial.
She certainly described someone Cold and evil.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: And he sat there with a daze. His eyes were just dead. You know, he just had no emotion at all, no sorrow, no nothing.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Mike jones, the former rogers detective, described don Davis in 2007 as someone who could not be trusted, calling him a con man and a quote, slimy piece of part four waiting for death.
Don davis has sat on Death Row since 1992, and while he's been scheduled for execution previously, he has yet to die at the hands of the state. He was scheduled to die on April 12th of 2010, but the Arkansas state supreme court halted that execution to address whether legislators improperly left key execution details to prison staff. Justices ultimately tossed out the state's death row policies, which contributed to multiple years passing without an execution. Then, in 2017, the state scheduled eight executions over two weeks. Its supply of a sedative used to bring death by lethal injection was set to expire, and governor hutchinson intended to move some executions forward before that happened. Don davis was among those scheduled to die, but before he could be executed, a court stay was issued, making him one of four to receive a reprieve.
The remaining four were not so lucky, and kenneth williams was the last of those to be put to death. Williams was the last person to have been executed by the state of Arkansas. In 2020, U. S. District Judge christine baker rejected a claim that the use of the sedative midazolam in lethal injections violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In 2022, a federal appears court upheld the constitutionality of the three drug lethal injection protocol used abused in the state. But still, Don davis sits on death row, one of 23 sentenced to die. No execution date have been set for him, nor any of the others. It is something the remaining Daniel family members say needs to change. Jane's stepdaughter, katie, recently spoke with reporter tracy neal about the pain of having to watch her stepmother's killer outlive her father.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: Well, it's been unfair.
My dad, he. All he wanted was to see justice served. He wanted to outlive Don davis, and he did not. So we lost him in 2020.
And I have him with me today. It's his wedding ring.
It's just not fair.
We wrote letters to Sarah huckabee Sanders telling our stories and how we wanted to see justice earth. And she's ignored us completely, every one of us.
We've not heard a thing from her.
She was elected to do a job that she's not doing, and we need to see justice serve. I mean, it's time. I was 27 years old when this happened.
Jane was 62 when this happened. I'm 62 right now.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: With no movement on scheduling the execution, Katie says the family is left waiting for closure.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Life is just going on, but we can never get closure.
You know, we all went through a traumatic like Jane's kids. My God, you know, they're living their life. I mean, she was my stepmom, so I can only imagine what Susan, Julie, Laura and Alex feel, you know, I don't know. It's just unfair.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: It's very unfair.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Diana Daniel points to the hardship on the family, questioning why the death sentence is an option if it won't be carried out.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: It's gone on and on and on. My husband passed away, but he did go twice and they called it off and he nothing but justice is what all of us are here for.
If they're not going to give the death penalty, then don't give that as a sentence because it hurts the families.
And yeah, and it just keeps coming back. And of course it's heightened right now. But somebody needs to answer us and that governor, our governor needs to answer us.
We have all written letters and we have all asked for some answers and there is nothing. And I think that's despicable.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Sam Dubke, director of communications for governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders office, released the following statement when asked whether the governor had a response to the family's complaints about the lack of an execution date. Governor Sanders takes this responsibility very seriously and will be thoughtful and deliberate with each individual case as she works to hold criminals accountable and follow Arkansas law. Reporter Tracy Neal also reached out to the Arkansas Attorney General's office seeking a response to the family's complaints and checking on the status of setting executions in the state case. Jeff LeMastre, communications director for the Attorney General's office, replied with the following statement. We are committed to enforcing the law and work very closely with the governor on criminal justice matters such as death row appeals. For a closer look on the ongoing efforts to have the Governor set Don Davis's execution date, read Tracy Neal's article in the June 28, 2026 edition of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, or find it
[email protected] as always, we at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and our sister papers, the River Valley Democrat Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, will keep an eye on this case.
Just like other crimes in the Ozarks.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: This podcast is a product of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette Community Journalism Project.
To learn more, visit nwajournalism.org.
