Talkeetna man arrested in connection with suicide

A former Talkeetna resident was indicted last week on two counts of third-degree misconduct involving weapons in connection with his wife's September death for allegedly handing her a gun.

Rex Davenport, 32, was arrested in Sandusky, Ohio, in early May on the weapons misconduct charges and was brought back to Alaska. An arrest warrant had been issued in October charging him for being a felon in possession of a gun.

The warrant was issued in connection with an ongoing Alaska State Trooper investigation involving the shooting death of his wife, Irene Davenport, on Sept. 15, 2001, in Talkeetna.

Davenport was initially suspected of shooting his wife to death in their lakeside cabin, but was released from jail in early October after Palmer prosecutors declined to take the case to grand jury.

"The bottom line is we couldn't proceed to a grand jury with what [evidence] we had," said Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak at the time.

Investigators recently ruled out murder in a reexamination of evidence. It is now believed to be a suicide based on that evidence, according to court documents.

Davenport had been arrested in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, shortly after he called troopers from a Talkeetna-area bar to report his wife, Irene Davenport, 40, had shot herself with a .357-caliber revolver, troopers said. Until his release, Davenport was being held at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in Palmer in lieu of $250,000 cash-only bail and a court-approved, third-party custodian.

Davenport told investigators his wife committed suicide after an afternoon of drinking and during a verbal dispute about his employment situation, according to court documents.

A witness who was fishing on the lake several hundred feet away from the Davenports' cabin would later tell troopers he heard the couple arguing, then the woman screaming. Moments later, the fisherman said he heard what he first thought was the "bang" of firecrackers, and then saw a large man emerge from the cabin and head off toward the Parks Highway.

The Palmer prosecutor said Irene Davenport's official autopsy report had not been completed by the state's medical examiner's office in time to take the case to grand jury, therefore suicide could not be ruled out.

Investigators initially suspected foul play when they analyzed the scene at the Davenport cabin. An easy chair was lying on its back a few feet away from Davenport's feet. An iron frying pan with its handle broken off was on the kitchen floor and slats from a pantry door were damaged, according to court records.

Troopers also suspected that the revolver that killed Irene Davenport had been moved after it was fired. Troopers found the revolver on the long white skirt Irene Davenport was wearing. Investigators alleged that a swipe mark on the bloodied floor indicated the gun and skirt were moved after the woman hit the floor, according to court documents.

Kalytiak said the wounds on Irene Davenport did indicate a "close-type contact" of the gun, and there was little blood and debris found on her husband, which would indicate suicide.

A reexamination of the evidence by a blood splatter expert revealed that Irene Davenport had shot herself, Kalytiak said. However, in this week's grand jury indictment, the jury agreed that Davenport may have had a role in the shooting.

At the time of the incident, both Rex and Irene Davenport were intoxicated, according to investigators. A physical domestic altercation erupted between the two, and when Irene reportedly threatened to shoot herself, Rex Davenport allegedly handed her the loaded gun and she shot herself.

The indictment states that it is a crime when one "knowingly transfer[s] a firearm to another whose physical or mental condition was substantially impaired as the result of … an intoxicating liquor or controlled substance."