Jury hears Davis confession By CHARLES V. FLOWERS Anne Arundel County Bureau of The Sun Annapolis-A detective who investigated the strangulation death in 1975 of a 16-year-old Randallstown girl yesterday read the murder confession of Charles W Davis, Jr., to the jury hearing Mr Davis's case. The 31-year-old defendant, who formerly lived in Baltimore, is serving two life sentences for killing two other women after sexually molesting them. Detective Patrolman T. Dennis Fee-ley, of the Anne Arundel Police Department, read Mr. Davis's statement that told of a night of drinking and smoking marijuana before Mr. Davis angrily strangled Lydia Victoria Norman after she refused to have sex with him. The murder took place in a car at a remote spot near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the statement said. Judge E. Mackall Childs, of Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, ruled that the statement could be introduced as evidence during a closed pretrial hearing Monday. The press was barred from the hearing, and lawyers and court officials pledged not to talk about it until after the jury was selected yesterday morning. ' According to testimony, Lydia's body was found lying face-up, fully clothed, in the Hanover section of the county. Detective Feeley was one of the first officers to arrive. He testified yesterday that Lydia had bruises on her neck and cheek and a scratched knee. Lydia carried two identification cards in her bag, one of an 18-year-old girl and an authentic one listing her as a 16-year-old student at Randallstown High School. A neighbor identified the body as that of Lydia that afternoon at the morgue in Baltimore, the detective said. The detective said that he and Ronald Clark, his former partner who was then a detective patrolman, eventually began to suspect that Mr. Davis may have been involved because of similarities with the two murders for which he was convicted. Kathleen C. Cook, 24, daughter-in-law of a high-ranking State Police officer, was shot and killed on New Year's Eve, 1975, after she was lured to the parking lot of a dinner club. Mr. Davis was convicted of murder on April 12, 1978, and given a life sentence plus 15 years. Later that month, he was given a consecutive life sentence for the shooting death of Peggy Ellen Pumpian, 23, daughter of a retired Pikesville businessman. She was found in a car on Interstate 95 August 24, 1976. Mr. Davis confessed to the two killings after being arrested in Nevada September 1, 1977 on other charges. Detective Feeley said he and Detective Clark brought Mr. Davis from the penitentiary to the Anne Arundel police headquarter in Millersville April 24, 1978. The prisoner was questioned for three days, with one interrogation session taking place at the site of Lydia Norman's death. Mr. Davis denied any involvement. Detective Feeley said, but "acted nerv ous and agitated" at the desolate scene of the death. In July, 1978, Mr. Davis's wife, who lived in Baltimore, told the officers that Mr. Davis was writing them a letter and wanted to talk to them again. They questioned him again on July 10, 1978. Detective Feeley said Mr. Davis signed forms saying that he had been advised of his rights, that he wasn't mistreated and that he was writing his confession willingly. Warren B. Duckett, Jr., the Anne Arundel county state's attorney who is prosecuting the case, introduced the signed forms into evidence. The confession gave this account of the crime: Mr. Davis met a friend, Harry Moss, at the Hollywood Palace on U.S. 40 west of Baltimore the night of September 11, 1975. They drank, then "smoked grass" outside. They went back in and drank more, and met two girls, one of them Lydia Norman. The four went to a place on U.S. 29 to drink, then came back to Catonsville to eat at a diner. Mr. Davis took the other girl to her home, then met Mr. Moss near BWI. Mr. Moss showed him the isolated place to park, and Mr. Davis and Lydia got there about 2:45 a.m. September 12. Mr. Davis said that he and Lydia Norman drank and talked and "we started making out." He tried to talk her into having sex, but she refused. He then strangled her and dragged her body out of the car and dumped it on the ground, the statement said.