Ex-con who helped destroy evidence in murder investigation sentenced to 10 years in federal prison

 Victim was the wife of deployed Fort Stewart soldier

SAVANNAH, GA:  A former federal prison inmate has been sentenced to another prison term for helping destroy evidence in the murder of the wife of a Fort Stewart soldier.

Devin Ryan, 30, of Hardeeville, S.C., was sentenced to 120 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker after pleading guilty to Use of Fire in Commission of a Federal Felony, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Ryan will be required to pay $26,475.16 in restitution, and after completion of his prison term, he must serve three years of supervised release.

There is no parole in the federal system.

“Devin Ryan helped a cold-blooded murderer destroy evidence in a homicide investigation – and committed the heinous crime while on supervised release from a previous felony conviction,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Estes. “Our communities are safer with him and his co-defendant locked away.”

After months of lying to investigators in an attempt to hide his involvement in the case, Ryan eventually admitted that he assisted Stafon Jamar Davis, 28, of Savannah, in destroying a 2018 Honda Accord. The vehicle belonged to Abree Boykin, 24, a resident of post housing at Fort Stewart Army Reservation and the wife of a deployed U.S. Army soldier.

Davis, who is serving a 700-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to Premeditated Murder and to Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, shot Boykin twice as she slept in her apartment on July 9, 2018. To destroy evidence in the case, he enlisted the help of Ryan, whom he had met months earlier while the two were serving prison terms. A few hours after the murder, the two doused the vehicle with gasoline and set it on fire in a remote area of Hardeeville, S.C. The car exploded, and the burned vehicle later was hauled to a salvage yard and ultimately scrapped before investigators could track it down.

“Ryan’s sentence brings to an end a tragic story of cold-blooded murder and an attempted cover-up of a crime by two convicted felons,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Ryan joins his partner in the crime back in prison thanks to a determined investigation by the FBI, Army Criminal Investigation Command and the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Georgia.”

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Army Criminal Investigation Command, and prosecuted for the United States by Southern District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer G. Solari and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Darron J. Hubbard, and Middle District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn Semales.