Friends, family of Jackson Davis gather at Gypsum park for Friday vigil to honor his life

The family and friends of Jackson Davis gathered Friday to honor his memory in the Gypsum park where he spent so much time playing. It’s also where his life ended a year ago.

Jackson, who was 14 and a freshman at Eagle Valley High School at the time of his death, was killed during an altercation the night of April 24, 2024 at Second Street Park. Nefi Ezequiel Armijo Hernandez, who was 16 at the time, is facing first-degree murder and other charges in the case. Set to be tried as an adult, Armijo Hernandez will receive a reverse transfer hearing in July to determine if the case goes back to juvenile court.

Jackson was honored with a vigil that included candlelight, music and prayers. Friends and family offered their memories of a youngster they described loving, faithful and quick with a smile and laugh.

“You could see God’s light in his eyes,” grandfather Gary Davis said.

Davey Johnson, the father of longtime friend Vinny Johnson said Jackson was not only Vinny’s friend, “he was my friend, too … I could always make him laugh … I miss him dearly.”

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Vinny Johnson said before the vigil began that he and others came out Friday to “show some support to my friend,” and fellow friend Sam Sosa said “he was a friend to all of us,” referring to the several young people gathered at the park.

After the teens had spoken of playing video games and sports, and Jackson’s occasional need to just get back home during the occasional sleepover, or slipping out at night to play “ding-dong ditch” in the neighborhood, came Jackson’s mother, Christy.

‘He’d give me that side grin…’

“Jackson was awesome,” his mother recalled. “He could walk into a room and make you smile with one of his little smirks. He’d give me that side grin and it melted my heart every single time…

He knew if I was down he’d say ‘mom what can I do, how can I help you?'”

While Christy Davis adores all her children, “There’s something a little extra” about her youngest, she said, adding that she will “fight for justice for Jackson 150%.”

She also encouraged everyone at Friday’s vigil to keep her son’s memory alive. The town of Gypsum has done its small part to help keep that memory alive by installing a bench at Second Street Park with a pair of photos of Jackson.

Robin Davis, Jackson’s grandmother, stayed up most of Thursday night writing a long letter to her grandson. Often reading through tears, she read the letter filled with her memories.

As a toddler, Jackson would ask his grandmother, who he called “Mimi,” about “every color, every number, and what every tree was called. … Of course I had no idea” about the trees, she said.

“We have all been robbed,” she said, adding that Jackson’s friends and family are all missing out of Jackson’s future high school dances, proms and sports he’ll never get to play, along with him learning how to drive a car with a stick shift.

But, she said, “What we do have is a lot of good memories.”

Those memories started early.

‘Mimi, can I hold you?’

When Jackson was first starting to talk and wanted his grandmother to hold him he’d ask, “Mimi, can I hold you?”

And there was Jackson’s love of just about any kind of ball games, which he’d play over and over.

Jackson was a good brother, and a good cousin.

After the 2022 death of Jackson’s father, Tony, when sister Veda had moved to Arizona, Jackson called every day. Robin said Jackson said he was calling to check on Big Boy, the dog, “but I knew he was calling to check on his sister.”

Robin’s letter read she’ll miss her grandson asking for haircut money, “every four weeks,” and his “loving, yet playful gestures.”

And, like his mother, Robin “would crumble every time I’d see that side-eye smile. That kid was something, man…”

Standing just an arm’s length from the bench dedicated to her grandson, Robin said “We can sit on this bench and you can hold me. … You are loved, you are cherished, and will never, ever be forgotten. You were truly a gift.”