A former federal inmate who met the confessed killer of an Army wife in prison admitted that he helped destroy evidence to cover up the woman’s murder.
Devin Ryan, 30, of Hardeeville, South Carolina, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Georgia to the crime of the use of fire in commission of a federal felony.
Ryan said he met Stafon Jamar “Bishop” Davis, 28, of Savannah, Georgia, after Davis called him to help with “getting rid of a car.”
RELATED
The pair met in Hardeeville shortly after Davis had shot and killed Abree Boykin, 24, at her post housing at Fort Stewart on July 9, 2018. At the time, Boykin’s husband, Sgt. Shawn Boykin, assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was deployed to South Korea.
After not hearing from his wife when he tried to reach her, Sgt. Boykin requested a welfare check at his residence.
Ryan and Davis were both on federal supervised release at the time of the crimes. Ryan brought a container of gasoline and the pair poured fuel inside Boykin’s 2018 Honda Accord and set it aflame. The car exploded and its burnt remains were later hauled to a salvage yard and scrapped before police investigators tracked down the evidence.
“Ryan’s attempt to cover up a murder made an investigation more difficult, but because of the determination of FBI and Army Criminal Investigation Command investigators, the case was solved and he will go back to prison,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of the FBI’[s field office in Atlanta, said in a statement.
Davis and Ryan were arrested in June 2019 for the Boykin murder and related charges, a year after the crime. Davis pleaded guilty in September 2020 to killing Boykin, whom he’d known since childhood.
“A man with no involvement, other than previous time behind bars with an admitted killer, needlessly complicated a murder investigation by destroying a significant piece of evidence,” said U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine. “Rather than stay a free man and hang up the phone when called, Devin Ryan helped cover up a murder — and that choice has earned him more hard time behind bars.”
Ryan also lied to the grand jury when questioned about the crime at an April 3, 2019, hearing, according to court documents.
Davis, who is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 11, faces a possible life sentence in federal prison.
A sentencing date for Ryan was not immediately available in the court’s public docket.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
