Blackburn: Projection Pre Crime

Shortly before his wife was murdered in a home invasion in which no great theft took place, Davey Blackburn gave this performance.  

On November 10th, 2015, 3 men entered the home, beat, sexually assaulted and shot 3 times, pregnant Amanda Blackburn.  She languished for 2 days before death came.  The fatal shot was to the back of her head, execution style. 

This is not the general behavior of a home invasion robbery in which sudden and often violent interaction takes place for the purpose of theft; incapacitate the home owner enough to take that which was valued.  

Nor was this typical of sexual assault where the primary interest is rape.  

Nor did Amanda Blackburn pose enough resistance to warrant this elevation in violence ending in murder. 

Pre crime and post crime behavior and wording is critical to an overall understanding of the crime.  

Statement analysis of the statements made by Davey Blackburn following the murder showed:

a.  No fear of the then yet to be apprehended killers, nor concern for his son, his neighbors, and the public at large.  A vicious invasive murder produces profound fear, trauma, and concern that the killers, which appeared to the public as "senseless" (since no major theft took place) only increases the fear due to the seemingly random nature of the crime.  Nothing is as frightening as the unknown and with unknown motive, there is the incessant fear that the killers will return.  If it was known that much cash was in the house and this was a robbery, the trauma is lessened for survivors because the motive 'makes sense' in this limited criminal aspect.  Without sense, brutal rapist killers were on the loose.  

b.  An immediate and intense desire to profit from her death.  The language was commercial and shocked the public. Blackburn showed obsessive language about numbers in attendance, like his mentor, Perry Noble.  This unbridled ambition was evidenced within the specific number of attendees, online, to his 'service', while offering nothing about the victim.  The lack of empathy for Amanda was striking.  

c.  Extreme (given both the context and numerical analysis) distancing language from the victims (including the pre born child).  This lack of human empathy for the victims and immediate and consistent distancing from the victims also shocked the public. 
d.  Language of guilt, offering by himself, "for us, we have nothing to hide."  The use of the plural is something that parents of kindergartens recognize as a need to 'hide' or 'share guilt' among a crowd.  
e.  He claimed "Amanda died so the church would live", justifying her death, while claiming to have been alone, naked in the shower, with the Almighty, who spoke to him and gave him "history making" plans.  He qualified the history making plans by removing responsibility of failure from himself to the congregation.  If he does not make history, it would be their fault.  

This represented two elements within murders common of those who either commit the murder, or have guilty knowledge of the murder:  the need to justify the action, and the need to avoid responsibility.  These are not only found in such crimes, but are personality traits found within deviants.  In child homicides, for example, we often find such statements as
"she would not stop crying", shifting blame to the child.
"she was a teenager, you know..." with a subtle shifting of responsibility to hormonal behavior. 

On the day of the murder, Blackburn went to the gym, as he did regularly, at a specific time, returning home at a specific time, yet on this date, he spoke to his best friend (as was his pattern) but remained on the phone for 40 minutes longer than usual.  

This, alone, as a change from the norm, should be examined, but the additional element makes the deviation from the norm heightened:  on this occasion, he remained in the driveway on the phone call while Amanda bled out, with precious time lost. 

Projection and Pre Crime Behavior 

Before the crime, we look for any signals of projection, or even possible planning. 

What did Blackburn, himself, tell us?

1.  He told us that Amanda hindered his ambition.  He told us that he wanted to be out getting the numbers in, but she wanted him home with her.  

2.  He told us that when Amanda first became pregnant, it was the most stressful time in his life. 

3.  He told us that Amanda was incapable of satisfying his sexual needs.  He went as far as to publicly state (in a 'sermon') that Amanda wanted to go out to dinner, but he was incapable of having a conversation with her at dinner until they had sexual relations.  He reduced the victim (pre crime) to sexually reciprocal body parts.  

4.  His public videos show him correcting and embarrassing her.  This passive aggressive nature was in both word and body language.  The public displays of disrespect and humiliation were subtle and consistent. 

5.  Just before the murder, he gave a 'sermon' (with respect to readers of faith) where he waved about this gun as a choreographed prop.  

A man of unrestrained ambition  told the public what it was that stood in his way of success.  He told the public who it was who stood in his way of success.  

As one 30 year criminal investigator said, "no one gets this lucky."  

As soon as she was murdered, his words betrayed him.  His first announcement was a sales pitch for his business, and his second announcement  was his sales report; the number he obtained.  Then, in the media circuit, he continued to sell himself, referencing his upcoming book, while failing to speak about Amanda.  

He attended his father-in-law's church where he said he could not speak, but then could not stop himself from speaking and gave his speech about his naked shower meeting with Deity (something criminal psychologists and analysts recognize associated with sexual homicides and the need to cleans guilt) about his grandiose plans, fully unimpeded.

Had he been polygraphed, the course of the case might have dramatically shifted.  A defense attorney would have had all the videos removed immediately and would have silenced Blackburn.  

The narcissistic lack of human empathy shocked a nation, but it was specifically in his words that we see the removal of hinderance from his ambitious plans; not unlike powerful, ruthless politicians. 

Blackburn was immediately cleared by police and is judicially innocent of the murder of Amanda Blackburn, as his alibi of being at the gym at the time of her murder was sustained and the three males arrested.  It does not appear that Blackburn was asked to polygraph although the statistics are clear that when a pregnant woman is murdered, the husband/boyfriend is most often involved.