Teens charged with breaking into burn victim’s family home

By MEGAN MATTEUCCI

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two Athens teenagers are in jail on charges they ransacked a family member’s home while he was out of town, visiting his burned sister in the hospital.

Eric Davenport was in Augusta, visiting his sister Elisa Denise Davenport, at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center.

Police say Elisa Davenport’s boyfriend doused her with kerosene and then set her on fire. She remains in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday morning.

On Wednesday night, police were called to Eric Davenport’s apartment in the Parkview Homes neighborhood. Neighbors saw two teens climb through a window in the back of the apartment and called police, Athens-Clarke County Police spokeswoman Hilda Sorrow said.

Police say Davenport’s 13-year-old cousin and his friend, 18-year-old Laquan Williams, knew he was out of town and broke into the home. The teens took cash, two PlayStations, games, shoes and several other items, Sorrow said.

“The homeowner suspected their cousin did it,” Sorrow said. “They knew where they stayed and went over to the 18-year-old's house and found them.”

Police arrested the two teenagers at Williams’ home.

“It’s just not right in a lot of ways,” Sorrow said.

The 13-year-old is being held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center on a charge of burglary, Sorrow said.

Williams is being held without bond at the Clarke County jail on charges of burglary, obstruction and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Williams joins Phillip Scruggs, Elisa Davenport’s boyfriend, who is being held at the jail on charges of aggravated assault and first-degree arson.

Davenport was trying to end her relationship with Scruggs, 49, when he set her on fire, police said Scruggs also served two years after being convicted of stabbing her with a screwdriver, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

On Thursday, doctors took some of the dead skin off Elisa Davenport’s burned body and began to prepare her for skin grafts, police said. She remains in a drug-induced coma.

Eric Davenport could not be reached for comment Friday.