Wife, sons of slain Palm Coast man guilty of tampering with evidence at stabbing scene

The wife of a Palm Coast man who was stabbed to death in Dixie County and her two sons were found guilty Friday of tampering with evidence, a felony.

But what evidence where they tampering with? Was it the blood of the slain husband? Or the blood of the wife's boyfriend? The jury could choose either one.

No one has been charged with the murder of David Rainey, 54, three years ago in Dixie County. Rainey was killed while vacationing in Suwannee with his wife, their two sons, another person, and his wife’s boss, Jeffrey Sawyer, with whom the wife was having an affair, according to a lawsuit which was later dismissed.

David Rainey’s widow, Cindy Sue Rainey, 49, was sentenced Friday to one year in the Dixie County jail followed by four years' probation. Circuit Judge Mark Feagle also fined Cindy Rainey $5,000.

But unlike their mother, the sons, Bailey Rainey, 22, and Jack Rainey, 20, did not post bail when they were arrested last year and have been locked up in the Dixie County jail for 10 months. They were sentenced each to five years' probation.

The three Raineys are responsible for paying restitution to the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for the cost of investigation. That amount will be set at a hearing within 60 days.

The six-member jury took 26 minutes to return guilty verdicts against the Raineys.

Assistant State Attorney Jarrett Thomas presented the case. He said each of the Raineys scored 16 points according to state sentencing guidelines. Neither had a prior criminal record, but they required a score of at least 22.2 points to be sentenced to prison.

In a phone call with The News-Journal, Thomas explained what investigators believed happened and where David Rainey was killed.

“We absolutely 100% believe that he was killed in the house. What we knew that we could prove is that they cleaned up the blood,” he said.

But whose blood did they clean up? Thomas said that decision was left to the jury.

Palm Coast man slain, wife's lover injured

Cindy Rainey was having an affair with Jeffrey Sawyer who was her boss at Better Buy Realty in Palm Coast, Thomas said.

The love-triangle exploded in violence in Dixie County.

“David Rainey caught them in the bathroom together and he charged into the bathroom with a knife and stabbed Jeff,” Thomas said in the interview. “And then David is found dead. Everyone in the house tells authorities that David stabbed Jeffrey. Everybody in the house says they don’t know what happened to David. We don’t believe that.”

“There were six total people in the house, so who is the one that stabbed David? We don’t know,” Thomas said.

They called 911 to report that Sawyer had been stabbed. But when paramedics and police arrive, they said he hadn’t been stabbed but that he suffered his injury when he fell off a dock, Thomas said.

“They didn’t say anything about David being missing,” Thomas said.

They were all standing outside the house with Sawyer, who had suffered some serious gashes to his arms, when first responders arrived. Law enforcement had no reason to check the house, he said.

The next day on July 25, 2021, a Sunday, they filed a missing person’s report about David Rainey.

“Everyone claims David walked outside to cool off and they never saw him again. But we don’t believe that,” Thomas said.

His wallet, his phone and his keys were still in the house.

That night, a deputy finds David Rainey’s body in a canal. He had suffered three stab wounds.

Thomas said that there were two ways the jury could reach a guilty verdict on tampering with evidence. They cleaned up after the stabbing of David Rainey or they cleaned up after the stabbing of Sawyer.

“They admitted to cleaning up the stabbing of Jeffrey,” Thomas said. “There’s no doubt that they covered up the stabbing of Jeffrey.”

Investigators were able to find little spots of blood that were from David Rainey in the house and found that a lot of other blood had been cleaned up but they could not tell who it belonged to.

All three Rainey’s took the stand. They said they didn’t know it was a crime to clean up. But Thomas said it’s common sense that a stabbing is a crime. They said that Sawyer didn’t want to press charges.

Thomas said that if any new evidence were to develop his office would seek to hold the person responsible.

“There is no statute of limitation on murder,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Wife, sons of slain Palm Coast man guilty of tampering with evidence at stabbing scene