Gervonta Davis pleads guilty to hit-and-run charges

Gervonta Davis has had a number of interactions with the law over recent years. | Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Gervonta Davis agreed to a plea deal in a Baltimore court this week.

The Baltimore Sun reports that undefeated boxing superstar Gervonta Davis plead guilty to four counts related to a 2020 hit-and-run incident this week. Through a plea deal with prosecutors, Davis admitted to leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failing to notify an owner of property damage, driving on a suspended license and running a red light.

Davis is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5. The convictions could see him serve some jail time, as well as pay several fines.

The hit-and-run incident occurred around 2 a.m. on November 5, 2020 after David left a nightclub in downtown Baltimore. Davis’ entourage had arranged a police escort to shepherd Davis from the club to his hotel.

However, Davis diverted from the path of his escort and ran a read-light on a busy city thoroughfare. After doing so, he slammed his Lamborghini SUV into the passenger side of a Toyota Solara that held four occupants.

Davis left the scene of that accident, in a Chevrolet Camaro that came to the scene of the crash, without checking on the occupants of the Toyota or alerting emergency services. The occupants, including a pregnant woman, sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Davis’ lawyers had previously submitted a plea deal offer to the court that would have seen Davis serve 60-days of unsupervised home detention. However, Judge Melissa Phinn rejected that offer after hearing testimony from one of the people hurt in the crash.

Jyair Smith told the court that her knee was seriously injured in the incident and she remains affected by the injury despite multiple rounds of physical therapy. Smith said the injury had left her unable to play with her children or go to work.

“He looked me in the eyes, and he never came over to help,” Smith said, describing Davis’ actions at the scene of the hit-and-run.

Smith is also pursuing a civil case against Davis.

Davis’ guilty plea comes a few months after his arrest in Florida on suspicion of domestic violence. Davis was charged with battery after a woman made a frantic 911 call where she alleged Davis had hit her and was going to kill her. The woman later walked back her claims.

Davis was also arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in 2020, after he was caught on camera grabbing his girlfriend by the throat and removing her from her seat at a University of Miami basketball game.

Davis’ last fight was an easy TKO win over Hector Garcia on January 7. With that mandatory WBA (Regular) lightweight title defense out the way, Davis is expected to face WBC interim lightweight champ Ryan Garcia in a super-fight on April 15.