Steven Davis convicted of 2023 minibike slaying

A Shreveport man who announced his intention to kill the person who stole his car and minibike, and then killed a person he believed guilty of those acts, was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Caddo District Court.

It took seven female and five male jurors in District Judge John D. Mosely Jr.'s court less than 50 minutes to convict Steven Darnell Davis, 49, of the August 4, 2023 slaying of Bre'Anna Hall, 20. Jurors also found Davis guilty of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Davis had his vehicle and a minibike stolen, and announced on his Facebook page that morning his intent to kill the responsible person if he found them. At about 9:30 p.m. that same day, 15-year-old Jeremy Mayo asked victim Bre’Anna Hall, his sister, to follow him in her vehicle as he drove the minibike from the Martin Luther King neighborhood across town. Ms. Hall and three friends were in her black Lincoln Navigator following her brother when they arrived at the stop sign at San Jacinto Street and Lakeshore Drive.  

Davis had asked his friend Marcus Douglas to drive him and they pulled up behind the Navigator at the stop sign. Davis exited the Douglas vehicle from the front passenger side and walked past the Navigator to the minibike, confronting Mr. Mayo, who surrendered the minibike. When Davis opened fire with a handgun, Mr. Mayo fled.   Ms. Hall exited her vehicle in an apparent attempt to plead for her brother’s life when Davis began shooting her and at the other occupants of the Navigator, tracking around the front to the driver’s side of the Navigator while shooting 18 times in 10 seconds and then re-entering the Douglas vehicle.

Ms. Hall, who had been shot five times, collapsed on the roadside, and succumbed to her wounds, two of which were later determined to be fatal.  One of the passengers in Ms. Hall's vehicle climbed into the driver’s seat and pressed the gas, driving over the minibike and dragging it across Lakeshore and onto San Jacinto. There were bullet holes through the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat of the SUV.

Investigators developed Smith as a suspect and two of the passengers identified him as the shooter. Douglas testified as to the events of that night, and also recorded a call he made confronting Smith about the shooting. Jurors also heard a recording of a call Smith made from jail shortly before the trial began, in which Smith attempted to get someone to tell Douglas to "stand down" because without him prosecutors had nothing.

When Davis returns to court May 21, 2026, he faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for the murder and at least five and up to 20 years, also at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence and a fine of at least $1,000 and up to $5,000, for the firearm conviction. 

Davis was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Treneisha Hill and  Ross Owen. He was represented by the Caddo Parish Public Defenders' office.

The case was docket No. 396815.