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The relationship between the young couple had been sputtering for some time and it was time to call it off. Paula Marie Davis, 19, took the initiative.
She wanted Giovanni Ruiz out of her life, but she wanted it done cleanly, without leaving him false hope.
On Sept. 5, Davis drafted the goodbye on her cellphone: “Thank you for everything you gave me and our time together, Gio.” She hit send the next morning.
But Ruiz was in her neighborhood 30 minutes later. Davis was dead shortly after.
North Las Vegas Police allege Ruiz killed Davis in his pickup truck and placed her body inside her minivan, which he ditched at a nearby park. A medical examiner testified in a grand jury proceeding earlier this month that the victim’s body showed signs she was raped after being shot twice in the head.
The details of the murder investigation appeared on transcripts of the grand jury proceeding that indicted Ruiz on a murder charge. The transcripts were made public this week.
Prosecutors indicted Ruiz on additional counts on Friday, though it wasn’t clear what those were. Ruiz’s attorney, Gabriel Grasso, declined to comment for this story.
The proceeding outlined how detectives pieced the case together and arrested Ruiz four days after Davis’ body was found on the floor of her vehicle in a parking lot.
Davis’ soft-spoken cousin recalled how they’d been together when she drafted and sent the text.
Her father spoke about how the family scrambled to find Davis when she didn’t show up to a church function, only to make a grisly discovery the night of Sept. 6 when they tracked her cellphone.
Giovanni Ruiz
The day of her death, Davis had planned to go to classes at UNLV and start pursuing a new relationship. She was enthusiastic about the prospect of a new and healthy relationship with someone she had a crush on. A camera captured her leaving her home 30 minutes after she broke up with Ruiz. She appeared happy.
Around the same time, Ruiz’s red pickup truck was spotted pulling into the neighborhood. Minutes later, he was seen moving between both vehicles, apparently transferring Davis’ body into her minivan.
Police theorize that after a short drive, Davis saw Ruiz and got in his truck, likely not feeling threatened at first.
They allege he shot her in his vehicle.
Police testified that they discovered blood in the pickup when they disassembled the seats; how Ruiz was spotted in a nearby store buying bleach, bags and towels; how he was caught inside the minivan at a separate parking lot and how they found a gun in his house with two bullets missing.
Davis’ crush testified that he believed they were going to be in a relationship but that she never showed up to their meeting and stopped replying to his messages.
Fractured relationship
Davis’ loved ones had described Ruiz as possessive and jealous. Four days before she was killed, she attempted to end the relationship, but he persuaded her to instead take a break for a few weeks.
Police said Ruiz bought a gun two days later.
But Davis had no intention to get back together with Ruiz, she confided in her cousin.
So the day before her death, she went over her cousin’s house and they started to draft the message. “I’m sorry that this is over text, but I think it’s the best way for me to make sure everything gets said.”
Davis wrote about ups and downs, that she appreciated the relationship, and that maybe one day they could be friends again.
Both cousins went to sleep, woke up the next morning, ate breakfast and sent the final draft.
Missing woman report
The Davises, a churchgoing family, stuck together and it was unusual for the young woman to go missing. There was a church choir function the day of the death, which Davis failed to pick up her younger sister for.
“So that was really the first indicator that something was wrong because Paula just doesn’t, she didn’t miss those type of commitments,” the father told the grand jury.
It wasn’t long before the family grew worried and began contacting Davis’ friends, including Ruiz. Ruiz told her father about their breakup and how he hoped the father would “be there for her.”
The family filed a missing person’s report and began tracking Davis’ cellphone, which was traced blocks away to the minivan.
Cryptic messages
The text messages to Davis’ father weren’t the only odd communications investigators probed. Police implied Ruiz tried to throw the investigation off by typing messages between his and Davis’ phones in which he canceled the meeting with her that morning.
Then, someone typed a cryptic note on the victim’s phone that implied she agreed to meet a hitman at the park where she was found because she wanted Ruiz dead.
Aside from surveillance video that spotted Ruiz in the neighborhood, police disproved through phone records that the former couple hadn’t been together that morning.
Police responded to Desert Horizons Park in the 3700 block of Simmons Street and began the investigation. At the same park a few nights later, dozens of community members gathered to remember the well-rounded artist who one day wanted to join the FBI and will be remembered for her kindness.