By Lookout Staff

March 26, 2026 -- A State appeals court on Wednesday upheld the murder conviction of Roy Antonio Davis, who used a pickax to kill an 88-year-old man found dead in his Santa Monica apartment on New Year's Day 2018.

The three-justice panel also upheld the conviction of Davis for the murder of a 28-year-old man who was found stabbed more than 100 times near a night club in Hollywood two weeks later.

In its 24-page ruling, the panel noted that Davis' defense attorney never argued he didn't kill the two men, the Ciy News Service reported.

The panel also noted that jurors agreed with the defense that Davis lacked the intent necessary for first-degree murder, convicting him of second-degree murder instead.

“Although defendant provided evidence of his mental illness, he presented no alternate explanation for his goal-oriented behavior during the murders,” the panel wrote.

The ruling pointed out that Davis entered the apartment armed with a pickax and used the weapon to strike John Hautz with heavy blows to the head and chest. He then locked the front door with a chain and left through a back window.

Hautz's body was found on January 1, 2018 in his apartment in the 2300 block of 34th Street by firefighters who responded to a call and forced entry.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office found there was trauma to the elderly man's body and ruled it a homicide.

Davis was already in Los Angeles County Jail on an unrelated robbery when Santa Monica detectives used forensics and other “investigative efforts” to link him to Hautz's death, police said shortly after his murder.

The elderly man lived alone, and seemed to keep to himself, police said. His kin were out of the country.

Davis, now 34, is serving a 32-year-to-life state prison sentence.