Biography
Eric McDavid is a green anarchist who organized as part of an environmentalist group consisting of Zach Jenson, Lauren Weiner, and "Anna" (Zoe Elizabeth Voss, a paid FBI informant). The group, at Voss's prompting, was planning an act of arson at Nimbus Dam. McDavid, Jenson, and Weiner were all arrested on January 13, 2006 and charged with conspiracy to destroy property by means of fire or explosives. Voss was paid over $65,000 to entrap the McDavid and specifically seduced McDavid into a romantic relationship. Jenson and Weiner also agreed to testify against McDavid in exchange for a lesser charge. McDavid was forced into almost two years in solitary confinement until after his trial. As a vegan prisoner, he engaged in numerous hunger strikes to demand equitable food.
On January 8, 2015, after he spent nine years in prison, McDavid's conviction was overturned after the prosecution conceded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had withheld thousands of pages of evidence that would've exonerated McDavid. In its 2007 trial report, Defenestrator placed McDavid’s pretrial detention at Sacramento County Main Jail and reported that he had been denied bail. It dated the original guilty verdict to September 28, 2007. His later conviction reversal and release are recorded above.
The November 2008 sentencing memorandum submitted by co-defendant Zachary Jenson’s lawyer confirms that Jenson cooperated and testified against McDavid in the environmental-activism prosecution. It discusses the informant called Anna and the differing accounts of who directed the group. Its arguments about Jenson’s limited role are advocacy for Jenson at sentencing and do not themselves decide McDavid’s defense or the later challenge to his conviction. Source: https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2008/12/13/zach_sent_memo_11.27.08.pdf#page=1
Historical prisoner identifier
Earth First historical prisoner-support roster identifies Eric McDavid as prisoner 16209-097. This is a historical identifier, not confirmation of current custody, institution, or mailing address.
Contemporary custody chronology
The Warrior Wind, issue1 (February2006), p5 explicitly dates the joint Auburn arrests of Eric McDavid, Zachary Jensen (the source spelling) and Lauren Weiner to Friday January13,2006. This supports January13 rather than January12 for the arrest date. It does not independently establish the initial institutional admission date or a continuous custody span through later sentencing.
Source: The Warrior Wind, issue1, February2006, an advocacy newsletter. Bail orders, future hearings and actual release are distinguished.
Initial physical custody and contemporary jail conditions
Pages1 and3 report McDavid arrested in Auburn at approximately11a.m. on January13,2006 and taken, with Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner, into custody and transported to Sacramento County Jail. The mid-April report says McDavid and Jenson remained jailed while Weiner alone had obtained bond release. It describes McDavid’s isolation, exercise restrictions, inadequate vegan food and a March hunger strike. This establishes initial physical custody before the previously stored September2007 start, not merely an arrest or a later sentencing event. A separate June27,2006 federal opinion, document25 in case2:06-cv-00638-MCE-GGH, pages1–3, likewise dates his January13 arrest and placement under United States Marshals custody, describes current county-jail confinement and says bail was denied. His later first-person March2015 account describes nine years in prison between January2006 and January2015. The dated initial physical custody, contemporaneous continued detention and bail denial, and his first-person account of nine years in prison support treating this as the same continuous imprisonment ending with the existing January8,2015 release. The counter is recalculated from those custody endpoints rather than from the imposed235-month sentence. Later supervised release is not counted as prison time. The newsletter’s March28 civil-suit date differs from the opinion’s March24 filing description and is not entered as a custody date.
June27,2006 federal opinion, background on PDF pages1–3; McDavid’s first-person March18,2015 release account.
The Warrior Wind, issue2, mid-April2006, an advocacy newsletter; source claims and completed custody events are distinguished.
In its 2007 trial report, Defenestrator placed McDavid’s pretrial detention at Sacramento County Main Jail and reported that he had been denied bail. It dated the original guilty verdict to September 28, 2007. His later conviction reversal and release are recorded above.
A Summer 2009 Sacramento Prisoner Support update reproduced in Fire to the Prisons places McDavid at Victorville. It says he was declining to use the TRULINCS mail-label system while challenging a new policy requiring a list of outgoing correspondents, leaving him unable to send written letters while he could still receive them. Supporters disputed the legality of the policy. The account also describes an appeal brief submitted May 6; neither this appeal nor its then-expected timetable is treated as a release or a court ruling in his favor.
