Jurors spare ex-cop’s life in woman’s murder

CANTON, Ohio — A former police officer was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with a chance of parole after 57 years for killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child.

Jurors spared Bobby Cutts Jr. the death penalty on the most serious charge, an aggravated murder count in the death of the fetus.

Cutts, 30, had sobbed on the witness stand when he claimed the death of 26-year-old Jessie Davis from an elbow to the throat last June was an accident during an argument. He said he dumped her body in a park in a panic. He returned to the stand after his conviction to ask jurors to spare his life.

Prosecutors argued that Cutts killed Davis and the nearly full-term baby at her home in northeast Ohio to avoid making child support payments.

The couple’s son, Blake, then 21/2, was found home alone and gave investigators their first clues to his mother’s disappearance when he said, “Mommy’s crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in the rug,” and later, “Daddy’s mad.”