SHANIYA DAVIS - 5 yo (2009)- Fayetteville NC

Members of a Fayetteville church came together Sunday to help stop child trafficking.The congregation of Manna Church, at 5117 Cliffdale Road, organized a 5K walk to raise awareness and money for the organization "Stop Child Trafficking Now."Organizers said not enough resources are being used to stop child trafficking.“An average trafficker, with a child, can make $200,000 a year on one child, and there's just no law enforcement set up to protect them. We have got a huge army after drugs but tiny, tiny little efforts after child trafficking,” said Michael Fletcher, pastor of Manna Church.Organizers of the Fayetteville walk said the Shaniya Davis case has focused attention on the issue of child trafficking.The 5-year-old girl was reported missing from her Fayetteville home on Nov. 10. Her body was found in a patch of kudzu off a rural road near the Lee-Harnett County line six days later.Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape of a child and first-degree kidnapping in Shaniya's death. Police have characterized him as a family acquaintance.An autopsy determined that Shaniya died of asphyxiation and that injuries she suffered were consistent with a sexual assault.Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, has been charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation. Arrest warrants state that Davis "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and "did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya."

The board of the Cumberland County Department of Social Services will meet Friday to discuss the district attorney's report blasting the agency's dealings with police during the investigation of the 2009 disappearance and death of Shaniya Davis.The 5-year-old girl was reported missing from her Fayetteville home on Nov. 10, and her body was found six days later.Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, has been charged with kidnapping, raping and killing the girl. Arrest warrants state that her mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, prostituted Shaniya, and an autopsy report noted that investigators believe she was used to pay off a drug debt.The DSS board will discuss the conduct of Brenda Reid Jackson, director of Social Services, and Heather Skeens, chief of Child Protective Services, as well as the report from Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis and the State Bureau of Investigation's review.The board has the power to fire DSS employees, if necessary.The meeting will be closed to the public, acting under an exemption from open-meeting laws when discussing confidential information.Grannis has said DSS "dropped the ball" when it came to helping police and accused the agency of appearing to be more concerned with its image than protecting Shaniya.Grannis has criticized DSS for waiting three days for a judge's order before turning over records regarding Antoinette Davis to police. He said that delayed investigators from getting information that could have led them to McNeill, an acquaintance of Antoinette Davis, sooner.Relatives have said that DSS worked with Shaniya's family regarding her older brother, and the case was closed without action.Social workers also told investigators that Jackson told them to print copies of all e-mails about the case and then to delete the e-mails and to limit written communications about the case.
Grannis said he wouldn't pursue criminal charges against DSS, saying it would be difficult to prove Jackson or others intended to destroy evidence.Jackson has declined to comment about the case, citing confidentiality regulations.Deputy Cumberland County Manager Juanita Pilgrim, who oversees DSS, has said that the criticism is unfair."There has to be another side to that, because it would be foolish for someone not to give police the information they need in a situation like this or any situation," Pilgrim said.

Board members for Social Services in Cumberland County say their director and her employees did nothing wrong last year when Fayetteville police desperately searched for a missing girl who was found raped and murdered.The board issued a statement Friday afternoon following a closed session that lasted more than 2 1/2hours with Director Brenda Reid Jackson and other staff.The statement says the board members "asked pointed questions" of Jackson Friday, and they challenge the accusations that Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis leveled toward the agency last month.The board reviewed all the records in the case and "we find nothing inappropriate. Absolutely nothing," said board Chairman Chet Oehme in an interview after the meeting.At a Sept. 30 news conference, Grannis said Social Services hindered police while they searched for 5-year-old Shaniya Davis. He said the agency refused to provide law enforcement with records until officers obtained a court order, three days after Shaniya was taken. Further, he said, police didn't get complete records until December, after further court orders were granted.Social Services had been working with the Davis family for years, Grannis said on Sept. 30.Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, initially reported the girl missing Nov. 10. She later was charged with human trafficking and child abuse and accused of giving Shaniya to Mario Andrette McNeill. McNeill is accused of raping and killing the girl. Her body was found days later near Sanford. Board member Marvin Rouse objected to holding the meeting behind closed doors, which is allowed by law in limited circumstances. The state purposes for Friday's closed session were to prevent the disclosure of privileged information and to discuss the performance of personnel.According to the statement released by the board, Fayetteville officers contacted the agency's Spring Lake office Nov. 10, the day Shaniya's mother reported her missing. The officers were shown records, and they chose not to make copies, the statement says.Although the police later obtained a court order, it was not required, the statement says."We have concluded that the agency worked diligently with the Fayetteville Police Department to provide all information relevant to this child fatality in a timely manner," the statement says.Grannis has said that some records were delivered Nov. 20, and that a Social Services employee told the police that the staff had been directed to print e-mails about the Davis family, place the copies in their case files and delete the electronic copies. He said this appeared to be an effort to hide the content of the e-mails to protect the agency's image.The e-mails were deleted from the employees' computers, but electronic copies remained on the agency's e-mail servers and the staff had the printed copies, Oehme said.According to the statement, Grannis sent Jackson a letter dated Nov. 17 asking her to deny media requests "concerning disclosure in a child fatality for Shaniya Davis." On Nov. 23, Jackson instructed staff not to communicate by e-mail any information related to this case and to print any e-mails related to the case, file them in the official record and delete the e-mails from their personal computers.Electronic copies have been given to the State Bureau of Investigation, the statement says. The SBI was examining the case, but Grannis recently took it off the case because he thought it was doing its job poorly.The statement contradicts another claim by Grannis, who said Jackson had accused a Fayetteville Observer reporter of attempting to break into the DSS office."The director unequivocally denies that she made any statements related to anyone breaking into the DSS building," the board statement says. "This incident never occurred."Oehme said the issue that Grannis referenced stemmed from a Social Services board meeting in November. After the meeting ended, Reid's administrative assistant found Observer reporter Nick Needham, who attended the meeting, in her office. Needham and the assistant startled each other, Oehme said.Needham said Friday he just wanted to talk to Jackson that day. He saw Jackson go through the assistant's office, which is next to the board room, to reach her own office. He followed her into the assistant's office to try to speak with her.

Kirby: Only one victim in death of 5-year-old

Perhaps, far too many of us are overlooking the obvious in the death of a child.She was 5.She went missing from a mobile home park off of Murchison Road in the early morning hours of Nov. 10 and was found dead six days later amid kudzu and animal carcasses in Lee County.She had been raped and died of asphyxiation.Mario Andrette McNeill is charged with kidnapping, rape and murder.Antoinette Davis, 26, the child's mother, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution, and is free on $51,000 bail.The director of Cumberland County Social Services and others in her department have been criticized for not cooperating with investigators, hence frustrating our police chief, investigators and our district attorney, not to mention others in this community."All the media has been hitting on DSS, primarily Brenda," Chester G. Oehme said Monday about Brenda Reid Jackson, 47, the embattled DSS director, after he resigned as chairman of the 5-member DSS board.His resignation came four days after Oehme said Jackson and DSS did "absolutely nothing" wrong regarding the investigation, although the district attorney says Jackson ordered the deletion of e-mails about the case and was slow to initially assist investigators.Oehme stands firm by the director.There have been fingers pointing in every direction in this tragedy - the police chief and the district attorney at DSS; the district attorney at the SBI, saying its probe of DSS was flawed; journalists at DSS; Jackson and Oehme at reporters; and blogs galore at Mario McNeill, the mother and Bradley Lockhart, the father who allowed the child to stay with the mother.Now, Oehme is pointing at his own board."The two reasons I have elected not to serve the remaining year of my term," Oehme wrote in his resignation, "are, first and foremost, my inability to lead the present board to accommodate and cooperate with other government officials and administrators in the spirit of openness" and "the lack of fairness of reporting by some Fayetteville Observer reporters in covering DSS."In defense of Oehme, he says that he and board member Marvin Rouse tried to persuade fellow board members Mary Deyampert-McCall, George Hendricks and Lyn Green to open to the media an Oct. 8 DSS board inquiry about the case.They balked, he said."We really wanted an open meeting," Oehme told a reporter. "I'm just afraid that the citizens think that we're hiding something. And we're not."Perhaps that is true. Certainly there are those in this community who appreciate Oehme's plea with his board for transparency. No matter, DSS does have a public relations problem, primarily because of what appears to be a self-righteous and cavalier attitude in this case.Woe is me, Mr. Oehme?Woe is DSS?There is one victim here, and it is not the DSS director, Chet Oehme or DSS. It is, if I may remind you, Shaniya Nicole Davis, age 5.Bill Kirby can be reached at kirbyb@fayobserver.com or 323-4848, ext. 486.

Five-year-old Shaniya Davis had barely begun to live when she was raped and strangled and her body dumped on the side of a road near the Harnett-Lee county line in November 2009.But the ramifications of her horrific death continue to reverberate in the community and in the agencies that investigated her case.A year later, the fallout continues.Cumberland County's Department of Social Services, accused of not cooperating with police in the tension-filled days immediately after Shaniya's disappearance, was the subject of an investigation sought by District Attorney Ed Grannis.The investigation came to a close in September, and Grannis has decided not to prosecute DSS officials on charges of obstruction of justice.But the circumstances surrounding Shaniya's death have led to the resignation of Chet Oehme, chairman of the Social Services Board, and continue to shine a spotlight on Social Services Director Brenda Reid Jackson, who has been at the center of a firestorm of criticism.Cumberland County commissioners are now considering replacing Oehme with one of their own in an effort to provide better oversight.A year after Shaniya's death, one big question remains: Can Social Services, Fayetteville police, the Board of Commissioners and the District Attorney's Office put aside their differences and work together?At 6:53 a.m. on Nov. 10, Antoniette Davis called Fayetteville police to say her daughter, Shaniya, was missing from her home in Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park.An Amber Alert went out just after noon for Shaniya, who had last been seen wearing a blue sleep shirt and pink panties.Davis and her 7-year-old son spent that afternoon at the police station, answering investigators' questions.Two days later, police released surveillance video, taken the morning Shaniya was reported missing, showing a man holding her in his arms in front of an elevator at a Sanford hotel. The video was time-stamped 6:11 a.m.The man in the video was identified as Mario Andrette McNeill, who turned himself in to police Nov. 13 and was charged with kidnapping.The next day, Shaniya's mother was charged with human trafficking and prostituting her child, filing a false police report and obstructing justice.The search continued for Shaniya as law enforcement and dozens of volunteers combed the woods and swamps in the area of southern Lee and northern Harnett counties.The search ended about 1 p.m. Nov. 16, when Shaniya's body was found among the thick kudzu vines that covered woods off N.C. 87 near Carolina Trace.On Nov. 20, McNeill was charged with raping and murdering Shaniya.Shaniya was buried in Fayetteville Memorial Cemetery on Nov. 22 after a funeral attended by nearly 2,000 people.By then, the case had become a national story on television news channels. That's how NBA star Shaquille O'Neal learned of Shaniya's death. He paid for her funeral.A week after Shaniya's abduction, Social Services Director Brenda Reid Jackson met with homicide investigators at the District Attorney's Office to review what her department knew about Antoniette Davis and her children.The exact nature of the department's relationship with Davis' family still isn't known. Jackson has used state privacy statutes to keep records of the case out of public view.But one of Shaniya's uncles, Michael Davis, told reporters that, before Shaniya's death, the DSS investigated her mother concerning her 7-year-old son.Shortly after Shaniya died, the co-chairman of a state task force on child fatalities said a team would be sent to Fayetteville to find out when the DSS first made contact with the family, the status of that case at the time of the killing, and whether proper procedures were followed.Last week, almost a year later, a spokesman for the state task force said no date has been set for the beginning of that review.Little else about how Social Services handled the case had become public, either, until Grannis held a rare news conference in September.During the conference, Grannis said police repeatedly had to go to court to force Jackson to give up DSS records that he said eventually proved useful to the murder investigation.Even with the court orders, Grannis said, the DSS held back records.The first indication of that came within a day of Shaniya's disappearance.A police detective was told by a DSS employee dealing with Shaniya's brother that "law enforcement is not getting everything, that they are not being told everything and that there is more to this," Grannis said at his news conference.After police figured out that an initial batch of records was incomplete and the county supplied a second batch, a DSS employee told a detective that she was being forced to delete all e-mails related to Shaniya's case, Grannis said.Grannis decided not to prosecute DSS officials for obstructing justice because, he said, the e-mails weren't destroyed but printed out and slipped into case files before they were deleted.That maneuver, Grannis said, was motivated by Jackson's desire to keep the e-mails away from reporters, who might obtain them under the state public records law. Everything in DSS case files usually is considered a state secret.Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine brought the DSS foot-dragging to the attention of Grannis.In December, Grannis requested that the SBI look into the county's cooperation with the murder investigation.The SBI investigation cast a shadow over the DSS for months.Jackson wrote Grannis in March, seeking an update on what the SBI had found. When Grannis ignored the letter, the county Social Services Board sent another one in August.Jackson, who had been briefed on the SBI's preliminary results by a bureau agent, believed the DSS would be cleared.Grannis finally responded to the DSS letters in September.Instead of exonerating the DSS, however, Grannis told Oehme, then the Social Services Board chairman, that he was dissatisfied with the SBI report. Grannis asked Sheriff Moose Butler to take a second look at the report.Butler's internal-affairs investigators spent less than two weeks on the case.On Sept. 30, Grannis called his news conference at Butler's office."To say we were not happy with the quality of the SBI report would be an understatement," Grannis told reporters. "In my 40 years, I've never seen anything from the SBI that bothered me this much."Grannis, who is retiring at the end of the year, recounted how an SBI agent told his aides that Jackson said a Fayetteville police officer attempted to break into the DSS building on Ramsey Street. She later changed that account, saying a newspaper reporter had tried to break in, Grannis said.The district attorney was skeptical. The Social Services Board later issued a statement in which Jackson "unequivocally" denied saying any such thing. "This incident never occurred," the statement read.On Oct. 8, the board called Jackson in for a closed-door chat. Emerging from the private meeting, the board issued a statement of support for Jackson. It noted she now is meeting regularly with Bergamine, the police chief.A few days after the board's statement, Oehme submitted his resignation, effective immediately.Last week, Oehme said he wasn't interested in talking about Shaniya's case in any depth."I feel that Social Services did what they were supposed to do," Oehme said. "And we're just waiting for the outcome of the perpetrator and the mother."Shaniya's father, Bradley Wayne Lockhart, still is angry at how DSS handled the investigation."I'm angry with DSS for withholding information that could have prevented all this," Lockhart said in a telephone interview from Georgia, where he now lives.Lockhart said no one from DSS contacted him after police searched Davis' home in July and found drugs."Why couldn't they call me and tell me they had raided the house and she (Davis) was under investigation?" Lockhart said.He said he also was upset that Oehme referred to him as a "deadbeat" in his October resignation letter.But Lockhart said he isn't dwelling on his anger. Instead, he's trying to channel it into something positive."We can spend most of our time finding fault and pointing fingers, but unless we find the root cause and change it, we won't fix the problem," he said.Asked if DSS could have done more to prevent Shaniya's death, Grannis replied: "I don't think you can say that."He drew a parallel with the 2009 murder of Eve Carson, the UNC student-body president who was slain during a robbery in 2008. One of the men accused in Carson's death was on parole at the time."I think DSS has a monumental task trying to deal with a lot of broken situations," Grannis said. "They certainly don't fix them all, and I don't think the rest of us can."A year after Shaniya's death, her mother and McNeill have yet to be indicted.Antoniette Davis remains out of jail on $51,000 bail.Davis was pregnant when she was arrested. She has since given birth, and the child has been put in foster care, a source close to the family said.McNeill is being held at Central Prison in Raleigh for safekeeping until his trial. No date has been set.Grannis said the case is in good hands, with a trio of proven deputy assistants to handle the prosecution.Bergamine would not speak about Shaniya's case or the department's relationship with Social Services. But he did issue a statement through department spokesman Dan Grubb."Unfortunately," the statement read, "Police Department personnel cannot comment regarding an ongoing investigation, but we trust and expect that the Fayetteville Police Department and the Department of Social Services will work together in a professional manner as need arises without regard to any individual case."In an e-mail last week, Jackson said DSS and police lawyers have begun to work together on court orders for records.She added: "We continue to extend heartfelt sympathy to the family of Shaniya Davis and our community which was affected by this tragedy."Shaniya's father has started Shaniya Speaks, a nonprofit group that works to raise awareness of sexual crimes against children.The group's name represents what Lockhart said he is trying to be: his daughter's voice.He plans to attend a memorial service, sponsored by the organization, on Nov. 16 in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store on Murchison Road.Grannis said he hopes the case serves as a lesson about cooperation between agencies in any investigation involving a child."I think we saw in this case how important that can be," Grannis said. "You would like to think that with everything that occurred in this child's case, there will be more of an effort in that regard."

Memorial service marking anniversary of Shaniya Davis' death is tonight

November 16, 2010

A memorial service commemorating the one-year mark of Shaniya Davis' death is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. today.

The service will be held in the Freedom International Ministries parking lot off Murchison Road.

Five-year-old Shaniya was reported missing by her mother on Nov. 10, 2009.

Shaniya's body was found six days later in thick brush along Walker Road near Carolina Trace in Lee County.

She had been raped and died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy report.

Her mother, Antoinette Davis, was charged with human trafficking and prostitution.

She is accused of offering her daughter to Mario Andrette McNeil as a settlement of a debt, the autopsy report said.

McNeil is charged with kidnapping and killing Shaniya.

First anniversary of Shaniya Davis' death marked with service


Already a year has passed since the community found out that Shaniya Davis, 5, was dead, after she had gone missing for several days.

Much has happened in the time since, but not enough has been done to protect other children from meeting a similar fate, the child's father said Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of the discovery of her body.

More than 100 relatives, friends and neighbors gathered for a memorial service Tuesday night at the Freedom International Ministries hall off Murchison Road, where they remembered Shaniya through prayer, song and poetry.

"We still have a lot of pain and hurt here as a community. I hurt every day," said Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart. "It's up to God and the justice system to actually determine justice for Shaniya. ... Forgiveness and peace is already within me; however, anger still sits."

Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, reported the girl missing on Nov. 10, 2009. Two days later, surveillance video from a camera at a Sanford motel showed a man in front of an elevator there holding Shaniya in his arms.

On Nov. 16, 2009, Shaniya's body was found in the woods off N.C. 87 near Carolina Trace. She had been raped and strangled.Mario Andrette McNeill, the man in the video, was charged with kidnapping and murder, and Davis was charged with human trafficking and prostituting her child. Both are awaiting trial.

Lockhart said the case - and the case of Zahra Baker, the 10-year-old cancer survivor whose remains were recently discovered in Caldwell County - highlights the need for the community to come together to find ways to prevent such tragedies in the future.

"There's so many things we could be doing, and just as Shaniya's case has rang loud with failures in our system in our community, that goes the same for Zahra Baker," Lockhart said. "We have to quit looking at just the victim dying. We need to come full circle. We need to figure out ways we can prevent the victim from dying and then if this is a tragedy that does happen, how are we going to change it?"

Pastor Gregory Pointer, whose church provided the forum for the event, said Freedom International Ministries got involved in the case now because it has deeply affected the community and brought a lot of pain and many questions.

"Even in drastic cases there is good that can be done," Pointer said. "The message that I would want people to leave with is that sometimes the life of somebody else in death brings life to others. So the death in many cases brings life. And so we have to take these moments as opportunities to do better and not let somebody who has passed die in vain."

Trying to move forward
Moving forward has been tough, said 38-year-old Nicole Teasley, who identified herself as a longtime friend of Shaniya's family. But it's important to keep Shaniya's memory alive to try preventing such a tragedy from repeating itself with another child, she said.Attendee Isaac McNeill, 62, said he wanted to show his support since he lives in the community, though he didn't know the family. Shaniya's and Zahra's cases indicate something is seriously wrong, and something needs to be done about it, said McNeill, who called for stiffer laws.

"It was a heart-breaking thing what happened to that child and I get angry every time I see a child slaughtered to the wolves like this," McNeill said. "This is wrong, this is very wrong. Something got to be did about it, not by man, but something's going be done. I'm telling you, watch the clouds in the sky when they roll back."

Shaniya Davis’ Father Honors Her Memory On The 1 Year Anniversary Of Her Death


Just a year after a sick child rapist claimed the life of his daughter, Shaniya Davis, Bradley Lockhart is honoring her memory and asking that the public works harder to prevent similar tragedies from happening to other children.

More than 100 relatives, friends and neighbors gathered for a memorial service Tuesday night at the Freedom International Ministries hall off Murchison Road, where they remembered Shaniya through prayer, song and poetry.

“We still have a lot of pain and hurt here as a community. I hurt every day,” said Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart. “It’s up to God and the justice system to actually determine justice for Shaniya. … Forgiveness and peace is already within me; however, anger still sits.”

Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Davis, reported the girl missing on Nov. 10, 2009. Two days later, surveillance video from a camera at a Sanford motel showed a man in front of an elevator there holding Shaniya in his arms.On Nov. 16, 2009, Shaniya’s body was found in the woods off N.C. 87 near Carolina Trace. She had been raped and strangled.

Mario Andrette McNeill, the man in the video, was charged with kidnapping and murder, and Davis was charged with human trafficking and prostituting her child. Both are awaiting trial.

Lockhart said the case – and the case of Zahra Baker, the 10-year-old cancer survivor whose remains were recently discovered in Caldwell County – highlights the need for the community to come together to find ways to prevent such tragedies in the future.

“There’s so many things we could be doing, and just as Shaniya’s case has rang loud with failures in our system in our community, that goes the same for Zahra Baker,” Lockhart said. “We have to quit looking at just the victim dying. We need to come full circle. We need to figure out ways we can prevent the victim from dying and then if this is a tragedy that does happen, how are we going to change it?”

Something must be done to prevent violence against children. We see these stories far too often. How are we going to change it?

We think it starts by keeping unfit parents (like Shaniya’s mother, who sold her into prostitution) from having unsupervised visits. R.I.P. Shaniya…

Cumberland County's new D.A. ready to hit the ground running



FAYETTEVILLE -- Cumberland County's new district attorney is ready to get to work.
Billy West took over for longtime D.A. Ed Grannis this weekend. He'll inherit several high profile cases, including the murder of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, and must deal with a growing population and tight budget.
West is the county's first new D.A. in 35 years. He worked as an assistant D.A. for 10 years and is a Cumberland County native.

http://charlotte.news14.com/content/top_stories/634848/cumberland-county-s-new-d-a--ready-to-hit-the-ground-running

Man accused of murdering Shaniya Davis wants to be released from prison

The man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Shaniya Davis wants to be released from Central Prison in Raleigh, where he is awaiting trial.

The letter, received by the Clerk of Superior Court's office in January, is three lines long.

It says "To whom this may concern; Release me. It's easiest."

It's signed by Mario A. McNeill, written in cursive and printed beneath that signature.

McNeill, 30, was charged in November 2009 with first-degree murder, first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping.

He is being represented by two lawyers from the state's Office of Indigent Defense Services.

One of them, Terry Alford of Spring Hope, said Wednesday that he was aware of the letter and why McNeill wrote it but that he could not comment.

McNeill has been held at Central Prison as a safekeeping measure since his arrest.

Five-year-old Shaniya was reported missing from her home in Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park off Murchison Road on Nov. 10, 2009.

The last person to see Shaniya was her mother, Antoinette Davis, who called police at 6:53 a.m. that day.

Three days later, police released video surveillance pictures taken at a Sanford hotel that showed McNeill holding Shaniya in his arms while waiting on an elevator.

The photo was time-stamped at 6:11 a.m. Nov. 10. McNeill turned himself in to lawmen Nov. 13 but didn't reveal Shaniya's whereabouts.

Shaniya's mother was arrested Nov. 14 and charged human trafficking felony child abuse.

"She (Davis) reportedly owed money to McNeill and offered the daughter in exchange for forgiveness of her debt," a medical examiner wrote on Shaniya's autopsy report.

Shaniya's body was found Nov. 16 in woods off Walker Road, just southeast of Sanford. The autopsy report revealed that she was suffocated.

Davis is out of jail on bail while she awaits her court hearing.

Neither McNeill nor Davis has yet been indicted by the grand jury, which must happen before the cases can be tried.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/05/18/1095116

The mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was indicted Wednesday on
charges of first-degree murder, rape of a child and human trafficking.
A Cumberland County grand jury also indicted Antoniette Davis, 27, on
charges of taking indecent liberties with a child, committing a sexual
offense, sexual servitude, and making a false police report, authorities
said.


Shaniya was killed and her body was dumped along a roadside in Harnett County in 2009.
Davis had been free on bail since being charged in November 2009 with
human trafficking, child abuse involving prostitution, filing a false
police report and obstructing an investigation.
Davis was booked into jail Wednesday morning, said Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.
There is no bail for the murder charge, Tanna said. Bail on the other offenses was set at $1.5 million.
Indictments also were returned Wednesday against Mario Andrette
McNeil, 31, who is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree
kidnapping and first-degree murder.
"It was long overdue," said Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya's father. "Now, may justice be served."
He declined to comment further, saying he was only recently briefed about the charges by District Attorney Billy West.
"It's all kind of fresh, really," Lockhart said.
West said, in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, that police sent their case file to his office several weeks ago.
The case was submitted to the grand jury on Tuesday, West said.
He declined further comment because the cases are pending.Case history
On Nov. 10, 2009,
Antoniette Davis, then living in the Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park off
Murchison Road, called Fayetteville police to report that Shaniya was
missing.
That call was made at 6:53 a.m., police have said.
A few days later, police discovered surveillance video from a hotel
in Sanford that showed a man holding Shaniya in his arms while waiting
for an elevator.
The video was time-stamped at 6:11 a.m. Nov. 10.
Police later identified the man as McNeil, who turned himself in to police on Nov. 13 after the video was released.
McNeil admitted to kidnapping the child, police said.
On Nov. 16, searchers found Shaniya's body off Walker Road, which is off N.C. 87 near the Carolina Trace community.
An autopsy revealed that Shaniya had been raped and strangled before her body was dumped, authorities said.
The autopsy report also revealed that police said Davis had allowed McNeil to take the girl as payment for a drug debt.
McNeil has been in custody at N.C. Central Prison in Durham since his arrest.
Davis had remained out of jail after posting her initial bond of $51,000.
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/07/06/1106653?sac=Home

Updated: 2:53 p.m. today
Death penalty sought in Fayetteville girl's killing

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Cumberland County prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to seek the death penalty against the man charged with killing a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl almost two years ago but not against the girl's mother.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 30, has been charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of Shaniya Davis, whose body was found in a kudzu patch near the Lee-Harnett county line on Nov. 16, 2009, six days after her mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, reported her missing from their Fayetteville home.

Authorities believe Antoinette Davis is complicit in her daughter's death. Arrest warrants stated that she "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and "did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya."

An autopsy determined that Shaniya died of asphyxiation and that injuries she suffered were consistent with a sexual assault. A medical examiner noted in the autopsy that investigators believe the girl was used to pay off a drug debt.

A Cumberland County grand jury indicted Antoinette Davis in July on charges of first-degree murder, indecent liberties with a child, felony child abuse, felony sexual servitude, rape of a child, sexual offense of a child by an adult offender, human trafficking and making a false police report.

She was arraigned Wednesday, and a judge set her bond on the murder charge at $2 million. Bonds totaling $1.5 million were set previously on the other charges.

McNeill, whom police have described as a friend of the family, is being held without bond at Central Prison in Raleigh.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10224654/

Mother, friend plead not guilty in Fayetteville girl's death




Shaniya Nicole Davis

Mario
Andrette McNeill makes his first court appearance on Nov. 13, 2009, on a
kidnapping charge in the disappearance of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.

Antoinette Davis

Fayetteville,
N.C. — The mother of a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl and a family friend
pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges stemming from the girl's death
more than two years ago.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 30, has been
charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of Shaniya Davis,
whose body was found in a kudzu patch near the Lee-Harnett county line
on Nov. 16, 2009, six days after her mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis,
reported her missing from their Fayetteville home.

Authorities
say Antoinette Davis was complicit in her daughter's death. Arrest
warrants stated that she "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent
that she be held in sexual servitude" and "did permit an act of
prostitution with Shaniya."

An autopsy determined that Shaniya
died of asphyxiation and that injuries she suffered were consistent with
a sexual assault. A medical examiner noted in the autopsy that
investigators believe the girl was used to pay off a drug debt.

A
Cumberland County grand jury indicted Antoinette Davis in July on
charges of first-degree murder, indecent liberties with a child, felony
child abuse, felony sexual servitude, rape of a child, sexual offense of
a child by an adult offender, human trafficking and making a false
police report.

Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death
penalty against McNeill but not Antoinette Davis.

No trial dates have
been set.

Published: 11:00 AM, Sat Aug 11, 2012

Trial date set for 5-year-old Shaniya Davis' accused killer

By Paul Woolverton

The murder trial for the man who allegedly bought, raped and killed 5-year-old Shaniya Davis in 2009 is scheduled for Feb. 18.

Mario Andrette McNeill will go on trial more than three years after Shaniya's death. The girl's mother also faces charges; her trial is scheduled for Feb. 18, too, but only one of the cases will go forward then, said Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.

It hasn't been determined which trial will start first nor whether they will be conducted back-to-back.

The Shaniya Davis case made national headlines when her mother, Antoniette Nicole Davis, reported her missing to Fayetteville police in November 2009. Shaniya's body was discovered in the woods in Harnett County six days later.

McNeill, 32, faces multiple charges including murder, child rape, kidnapping, child abuse and human trafficking. He is being held without bail in the Cumberland County jail.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

His trial likely will take two to three months, including jury selection, West said.

Davis, 28, is charged with murder, child abuse, sexual servitude, human trafficking, child rape and other charges. She is in jail with bail set at $3.5 million. Her trial likely will run about a month, West said.

She faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

While it typically takes a few years for a murder case to go to trial in Cumberland County, this one took longer than most.

West said there was a delay in his office receiving the investigative file from law enforcement because there were so many agencies involved, including the Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Bureau of Investigation and the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

Also, West said, it was difficult to coordinate with the schedules of McNeill's lawyers, who are from out of town and spend most of their time defending clients in capital murder trials in numerous jurisdictions.

One of McNeill's lawyers has another capital case late this year, West said. If that trial runs longer than expected, the Shaniya Davis case will be delayed until March 11.

Investigators think Antoniette Davis sold her daughter to McNeill on Nov. 10, 2009, to settle a drug debt. She then reported the girl was missing. McNeill is accused of taking the girl to a hotel in Sanford and then killing her and dumping her body after someone told him the police were looking for him.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/08/10/1196387

Accused killer of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis to stand trial Feb. 18

Published: 09:17 PM, Fri Jan 11, 2013
By Michael Futch
Staff writer

The man accused of raping and killing 5-year-old Shaniya Davis will stand trial in February.

A Cumberland County judge Friday denied a request by Mario Andrette McNeil's lawyers to delay the capital murder trial by 60 days. Jury selection will begin Feb. 18.

The child's mother, Antoniette Nicole Davis, is accused of handing over the child to McNeil to settle a drug debt in November 2009. She also faces charges including murder.

The case captured national attention after Davis first reported the child missing from their trailer home off Murchison Road.

Police say Davis fabricated the story after selling her daughter to McNeil, who assaulted the child in a Sanford hotel before killing her and dumping the body along N.C. 87 in Harnett County. The body was found six days later.

McNeil, 32, faces multiple charges including child rape, kidnapping, child abuse and human trafficking. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

The trial likely will take two to three months, including jury selection, the district attorney has said.

McNeil, who remains in jail without bail, did not speak during his hearing Friday.

Wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit, goatee and long dreadlocks, he sat beside his defense team of Terry Alford and Harold "Butch" Pope.

McNeil swiveled in his seat during the 35-minute hearing, appearing at times to smirk as his lawyers went through motions.

Prosecutors could have decided to try Davis before McNeil. District Attorney Billy West declined to comment on whether Davis will be called to testify against McNeil.

Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons denied a request by McNeil's lawyers to remove the possibility of the death penalty.

Ammons said he would decide which photographs from the crime scene and autopsy can be shown to jurors, in response to a defense motion that none be shown.

"We just didn't want any photographs presented to the jury before you've had a chance to review," Pope said.

There won't be, Ammons responded.

Ammons denied a request for a 60-day continuance from the defense.

Alford said his team had learned the FBI laboratory still has evidence in the case that the lawyers have not reviewed.

"That's one reason we're asking for continuance," he said.

Alford said the defense received Friday morning 28 disks of materials, including surveillance video from Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park, where the Davises lived, and the Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford.

Alford said he wanted his team to have adequate time to peruse previously unavailable FBI and State Bureau of Investigation materials.

"There may not be any new material in those disks," he said, "but we would like to review them."

He told Ammons that the defense was trying to locate a geologist to study soil samples from where Shaniya's body was found.

Assistant District Attorney Robby Hicks told the judge "there's nothing new" in the FBI materials - raw data from cellphones. Prosecutors had received that Friday, he said, and the defense will be getting it next week.

Everything but one item from the SBI had been turned over to the defense, he said, and that item is going to be sent to the team next week.

Ammons then denied the motion for a continuance.

Davis, 28, is charged with murder, child abuse, sexual servitude, human trafficking, child rape and other charges. She is in jail with bail set at $3.5 million. Her trial likely will run about a month, West said.

She faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/01/11/1229906?sac=fo.local

Shaniya Davis trial postponed

Thursday, February 07, 2013

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The trial for the man accused of raping and killing 5-year-old Shaniya Davis has been postponed.

A judge granted Mario McNeil's attorney's request for a continuance until April 8. McNeil was originally scheduled to go on trail Feb. 18 in Cumberland County Superior Court.

The attorney said they need more time to evaluate the evidence and get an expert witness.

Authorities said the girl's mother gave the girl to McNeil to settle a drug debt in Nov. 2009.

The trial for the girl's mother, 28-year-old Antoniette Nicole Davis, was also delayed.

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons on Wednesday granted the defendants' request for a continuance in both cases.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8984483

Accused child killer deemed competent for trial



Mario Andrette McNeill listens as jury selection proceeds on April 9, 2013,
for his capital murder trial. McNeill is charged with raping and killing
5-year-old Shaniya Davis in November 2009.

Shaniya Davis

Antoinette Davis



Fayetteville, N.C. — A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the man accused of
raping and killing a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl is competent to stand
trial, despite some psychologists saying he has been delusional in
recent days.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 32, is charged with murder,
rape and kidnapping in the November 2009 death of Shaniya Davis. He
could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.

His capital murder trial was supposed to have begun Monday, but Judge Jim Ammons
delayed it for a week after defense attorneys expressed concerns about
his competency. Ammons ordered state psychiatrists to evaluate him in
recent days.

Mark Hazelrigg, a psychologist at Central Regional
Hospital in Butner who assessed McNeill on Wednesday, described him as
intelligent and having "no impairment in cognitive ability" and found
him competent to stand trial.

Meanwhile, Durham psychologist
James Hilkey diagnosed McNeill with schizotypal personality disorder,
antisocial personality disorder and a narcissistic personality after
meeting with him for more than two hours last Saturday at the request of
defense attorneys.

Hilkey said McNeill described an
electromagnetic field in the courtroom that allowed him to sense the
jury's perceptions of him, and he closed his eyes in the courtroom to
enhance his paranormal experience.

"He denied that he was crazy
and said he was happy with the jury selection and referenced he had a
special connection with three of the jurors and felt they would be
favorably disposed to his case," Hilkey testified.


McNeill also repeatedly talked about someone named "Sophia," who Hilkey said was tantamount to a deity or an alien.

"I do believe these belief systems will impair his ability to assist
counsel," he testified, adding the McNeill was adamant that there was
nothing wrong with him.

Dr. George Corvin, a Raleigh
psychiatrist, met with McNeill for five hours on Sunday and said McNeill
shared the same behavior with him. He likewise questions whether
McNeill is rational enough to help his lawyers defend him.

Assistant Cumberland County District Attorney Rita Cox noted that McNeill has
never demonstrated the mental problems Hilkey described in the more that
three years that he's been in jail awaiting trial.

"He's playing everybody," Assistant Cumberland County District Attorney Robby Hicks
told Ammons. "He likes to play all kinds of little games. The evidence
has shown you that (McNeill) is capable of turning it on and turning it
off.”

Defense attorney Butch Pope said that, when he speaks to McNeill, “I feel like I’m talking to myself.”

“It’s obvious he has downplayed his symptoms,” Pope said.

Ammons sided with prosecutors, saying that McNeill “acted appropriately”
during jury selection and other pre-trial hearings and that his answers
to questions indicates he has an understanding of the proceedings.

No ruling made on statement to police


Shaniya's body was found in a kudzu patch off N.C. Highway 87 near the
Lee-Harnett county line on Nov. 16, 2009, six days after her mother,
Antoinette Nicole Davis, reported her missing from their mobile home on
Sleepy Hollow Drive in Fayetteville.

Two weeks ago, McNeill rejected a deal offered by prosecutors to guarantee a life prison
sentence if he pleaded guilty. His attorneys said he maintains his
innocence.

Prosecutors want to note in their opening statement to
jurors next week that McNeill helped authorities locate Shaniya's body,
but the defense said that would violate attorney-client privilege.

Allen Rogers, who represented McNeill when he was first questioned by police
in her disappearance, said he told McNeill that helping investigators
"could aid him in avoiding the death penalty." He said he was only
advising him of the consequences should he face a capital murder trial,
and prosecutors have denied making a deal with McNeill in 2009.

Ammons said he would rule on the matter Monday before the trial starts.

Investigators say Davis sold her daughter to McNeill to pay off a drug debt.

She is charged with first-degree murder, indecent liberties with a child,
felony child abuse, felony sexual servitude, rape of a child, sexual
offense of a child by an adult offender, human trafficking and making a
false police report.

Her trial will be held after McNeill's case is over, and prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty against her.

news.yahoo.com/local/fayetteville-nc-2402726.html

Prosecutors end closing arguments with emotional appeal to convict Mario McNeill of killing Shaniya Davis
By Michael Futch
Staff writer

How? How? How?

"Asphyxiation," the prosecutor said, answering his own question.

Assistant District Attorney Robby Hicks then asked jurors if they remembered what the pathologist had told them about what happens during airway obstruction. That it takes at least two minutes or more to smother someone to death.

"For two minutes and more!" Hicks blurted out loudly, trying to drive home his point.

"Bruising this child's face. Causing hemorrhages in her lungs that were seen microscopically, because she gasped to live.

"Remember she had hair in her hand," Hicks said. "It was her hair. And she's struggling to live. And all she could grab was her own hair.

"Remember. A second is an eternity to live.

"Imagine," Hicks said, " what it was like for Shaniya."

Hicks was delivering his final arguments for the state Tuesday afternoon in the Mario McNeill capital murder trial at the Cumberland County Courthouse.

McNeill, 33, if convicted, could be facing death. The defendant is being tried on seven charges, including the first-degree murder and rape of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis in November 2009.

The defense maintains its client's innocence, telling jurors that, while McNeill may have transported the child by car to a Sanford hotel room, he did not harm the child.

Authorities say Shaniya's mother, Antoniette Nicole Davis, gave the child to McNeill to settle a drug debt, then falsely reported her daughter missing.
The state has presented a story that charges McNeill with taking Shaniya to a Sanford hotel, where she was sexually assaulted before killing the little girl and dumping her body off Walker Road in Lee County.

Prosecutors wrapped up their closing arguments on Tuesday, with Hicks' emotional plea to convict McNeill of killing the child.

"If you don't think that two-minutes-plus is a meant-to-do-it murder, maybe you will in two minutes," Hicks said, his hand resting on the front of the jury box.

Then he held up his watch and started to occasionally mark the time in the otherwise silence of the courtroom.

"Thirty seconds," Hicks told the jury. "There's still time for him to let her go."

Moments later, Hicks cupped his hand over his mouth and his eyes reddened with emotion as the seconds ticked away.

Once the two minutes had lapsed, Hicks told the jurors: "Tell the defendant that you know he did it. Tell him with a verdict that says, 'We're bringing you justice, Shaniya. You deserve it.' Justice has found a way to this courtroom. Let it find a way with your verdict."

Tuesday's proceedings in the trial now in its seventh week were replete with final arguments. The state wrapped up its case with presentations from Hicks and District Attorney Billy West.

Lawyer Terry Alford then argued for the defense before court was recessed for the day.

The trial is scheduled to resume today at 9:30 a.m., with defense lawyer Harold "Butch" Pope presenting his final argument.

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons will then give his instructions to the jury before its members sequester in the jury room for final deliberations.

But Tuesday, the lawyers on each side of the room spoke at length, looking to shore up their sides of the Shaniya Davis case that they hope leaves an impression on the 16-member jury. That includes the 12 regular jurors who decide McNeill's fate.

"You promised in jury selection to keep an open mind and listen to everything," Alford said in opening his argument. "That's what I'm going to ask you do to. They said a lot, and I've got a lot to say."

Then, with the soothing voice of a Southern Baptist minister, he proceeded to punch holes in the state's evidence.

The state alleged Tuesday that there's enough circumstantial evidence to indicate that McNeill had sex with the child before leaving her home on Sleepy Hollow Drive. But Alford said no one in that mobile home heard his client having sex with Shaniya.
"That just didn't happen," he said.

He talked about how Brenda Davis, Shaniya's aunt, had doled out different stories to investigators. He said the prosecution had made a big to-do about a blanket thrown out of the mobile home, and that it had feces on it.

But there was no feces found on the child's body or clothes, said Alford, who primarily spoke to the jury from behind a lectern.

"Everything matters in a case like this," he said. "We're talking about first-degree murder."

Alford said it was important that no evidence had been presented to indicate that blood was discovered on another blanket found in a trash can across the road from Brenda Davis' home, where Shaniya was living.

And he said a pubic hair that the state said was found on a comforter in the hotel room may not have been a pubic hair at all.

It could have been a body hair, Alford said, citing previous state's testimony.

He questioned why McNeill didn't have scratches on his body after the alleged sexual assault, saying Shaniya's hands had been free to fight back. Yet photos taken of McNeill when he was initially booked on kidnapping charges did not show any signs of a struggle, according to Alford.

He implored the jurors to think out everything carefully.

"There's an alternative to that (the state's) story," Alford said. "There's some other way it could have happened that's beyond a reasonable doubt. That's reasonable doubt.

"When you go back there," he said, referring to the jury room, "you've got an awesome responsibility and you've got a lot of power. The judge has got the power in this courtroom throughout the time. And he's fixing to transfer it to you, and what you say goes. And it's easy to take the easy road."

Earlier in the day, Alford twice asked for a mistrial over District Attorney West's statements, but Ammons denied both requests.

Alford first moved for a mistrial, when he accused West of crossing the line during West's closing argument, indicating to jurors that the defendant told investigators where Shaniya's body could be found.

Earlier in the trial, Ammons had told prosecutors they could say that a Fayetteville lawyer, Allen Rogers, had given investigators the tip that led to the discovery of the child's body.

Ammons said the state could not say that McNeill was the source of the information.

But West, Ammons said, appeared to come close to breaking that ruling during his final argument.

During his presentation, West began ticking off reasons why the jury should convict McNeill.

West traced Shaniya's abduction and murder chronologically and referred to testimony from witnesses whom he said supported the prosecution's contention that McNeill is responsible.

He cited testimony from experts about how minerals and tiny metal fibers taken from soil in the gas pedal of McNeill's car matched soil near where Shaniya's body was found close to the Carolina Trace golfing community.

He said cell phone analysis placed McNeill in the area near that site after he had left the Sanford hotel with the girl.

West also reminded the jury that information on the location of Shaniya's body had come directly from McNeill's lawyer.

"He's defiant," West said about McNeill. "And he thinks he's smarter than you. And he thinks you're going to let him walk out the back of the courtroom a free man."

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayobserver.com or 486-3529.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/05/21/1258277?sac=fo.local

He'll do anything thing to get off. Hopefully justice will prevail. William

I want to see this piss poor mother convicted also.

Posted: May 29
Fayetteville child killer sentenced to death

Fayetteville, N.C. — A Cumberland County jury deliberated less than 40 minutes Wednesday before deciding that Mario Andrette McNeill should die for the November 2009 death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.

The eight-man, four-woman jury last week convicted McNeill, 32, of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, sexual offense of a child, indecent liberties with a child, human trafficking and sexual servitude in connection with her death.

That decision took almost eight hours over two days, but jurors didn't even have to call out for lunch Wednesday before handing down the death sentence.

"I submit to you, without hesitation, that the only punishment appropriate in this case – for these crimes – is the death penalty," Assistant Cumberland County District Attorney Robby Hicks said in his closing argument Wednesday morning.
McNeill, who is the first person to be sentenced to death in Cumberland County in six years, declined to make a statement in court.

Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, berated McNeill after the sentence was announced, saying he treated the entire trial as a joke and his demeanor made a mockery of the court.

"The media glorifies you as you walk in with smirks and smiles," Lockhart said. "I'm not going to worship you. I'm going to pray for you."

He added: "I think of those last seconds, and you were the last thing my daughter got to look at."

After offering no evidence in his defense during the trial, McNeill told Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons on Tuesday that he wanted no one to testify on his behalf before sentencing. He even forbade his lawyers from offering any closing arguments to jurors.

“My goal was freedom. I lost my freedom. What does it matter after that?” he said.

Lockhart and Shaniya's half-sister wept Tuesday as they described for jurors the difficulty in dealing with her death.

"It's been a long road," Lockhart said Wednesday. "At the end of this verdict, nobody has really won here. I'll never get Shaniya back. You took that from me."
District Attorney Billy West said McNeill showed no remorse for Shaniya's death.
"He showed no regard for her innocence when he kidnapped her from her home in the middle of the night," West said in his closing argument. "He showed no regard for her life when he murdered her and left her along desolate Walker Road."

Before McNeill was taken in handcuffs out of the courtroom, Ammons spoke to him.

"May God have mercy on your soul," he said. "You did not have to kill that child."
Ammons then turned to Shaniya's family.

"I can't give you justice," he said. "The jury has given you what we as humans – the best we humans can do – to give you justice. Justice would be if I reversed all of this, and I can't."

McNeill's mother, Juanita Bell, who left the courtroom in tears Tuesday after her son would not let her testify on his behalf, showed now emotion Wednesday. She and other family members declined to comment.

Shaniya's body was found on Nov. 16, 2009, in a kudzu patch off N.C. Highway 87 on the Lee-Harnett county line, six days after her mother reported her missing from their Fayetteville mobile home.

An autopsy determined that she had been suffocated, and she had injuries "consistent with a sexual assault" shortly before she died, according to a medical examiner.

Assistant District Attorney Rita Cox told jurors that the girl died "a slow, agonizing death," with a "carcass wasteland for her burial site."

Cox said McNeill knew what he was doing the night Shaniya was taken from her home, and he even talked to police a few days later after being seen with the girl at a Sanford hotel "because he thought he could manipulate them."

McNeill insisted in his nearly six-hour interview with police that he merely took Shaniya to the hotel at the request of her aunt, and he then handed the girl off to somebody he thought was a relative who would ensure that she went to school.
"Mario McNeill thinks he's smarter than police," Cox said. "He denies everything – lie, lie, lie and lie."

West and Cox told jurors not to be swayed by McNeill's silence in court.

"It may be to invoke sympathy, it may be a simple act of defiance or it may be manipulation," West said. "I ask you to follow the law in this case.

"There's a lot he'd like you to forget," he said. "He wants you to forget that he had sex with Shaniya after he struck out with the 26 women he texted. ... He wants you to forget that he suffocates the life out of Shaniya Davis."

"Don't let it manipulate you into feeling sympathy for the defendant," Cox said.
Defense attorney Butch Pope said he and his co-counsel, Terry Alford, had never as stubborn as McNeill. If McNeill would have allowed the attorneys to present testimony on his behalf, it may have "put on a human face" and possibly kept him off death row, Pope said.

"As defense lawyers, we can't help but wonder if that would have made a difference, if we would have been able to present the mitigating evidence," he said.

McNeill becomes the 153rd inmate on North Carolina's death row. The last person from Cumberland County sentenced to death was Eugene Johnny Williams, who was convicted in 2007 of killing two people in a dispute over a stolen motorcycle.
No executions have been carried out in the state since 2006.

Investigators say Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, sold her to McNeill to pay off a drug debt. Davis is charged with first-degree murder, indecent liberties with a child, felony child abuse, felony sexual servitude, rape of a child, sexual offense of a child by an adult offender, human trafficking and making a false police report.

She will be tried later this year, but prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty against her.


 http://www.wral.com/jury-hands-down-death-sentence-for-shaniya-davis-murder/12493723/

Lawyers for Antoinette Davis want all charges dismissed in Shaniya Davis murder trial

Published: 07:08 AM, Wed Oct 09, 2013
By Michael Futch, Staff writer

Lawyers for the mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis are asking that all charges against their client be dropped because they violate her constitutional rights.

Lawyers for Antoinette Davis filed a motion to dismiss the charges Oct. 2 in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Davis, 29, is accused of giving Shaniya to Mario McNeill on Nov. 10, 2009, to settle a drug debt.

McNeill was convicted of Shaniya's murder and sentenced to death in May. He also was convicted of kidnapping and sexually abusing Shaniya.

Davis' trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 28.

A motion hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday. Davis is expected to be in court for the hearing, District Attorney Billy West said.

Davis is accused of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense, child abuse, sexual servitude with a child, child abuse sexual act, human trafficking and indecent liberties with a child.

She does not face the death penalty.

Her lawyers say the charges against Davis arise "out of the same facts and circumstances as those giving rise to McNeill's conviction."

"Simply put, it is legally impossible for defendant to be found guilty (of human trafficking) as currently charged if Mario McNeill is guilty of kidnapping Shaniya Davis,'' the motion states. "As such, it is fundamentally unfair to allow the state to proceed with the prosecution of defendant and argue that there was, in fact, willful consent on the part of defendant for the removal of her daughter from her care and custody by McNeill.

"Those theories are mutually repugnant and exist at the core of the state's cases against defendant and McNeill."

The hearing is being held during Judge Jim Ammons' administrative week.

During their monthly administrative week, judges schedule cases after meeting with defense lawyers and prosecutors. The case management system attempts to set timetables for cases but allows flexibility for exceptional cases and for continuances.

"It's customary to have pretrial motions during that week," West said. "We'll try to clear up as many motions as we can before we get to the trial date."

West said he didn't know which motions would be heard.

Her lawyers also filed a motion to suppress statements.

Lawyer D.W. Bray said his client was never given her Miranda rights prior to an interview with detectives on Nov. 14, 2009. All of her statements, the motion states, were obtained against her will and made in violation of her statutory and constitutional rights.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/10/09/1288154?sac=fo.local

Posted: 12:18 p.m. yesterday
Updated: 5:51 p.m. yesterday



Mother pleads guilty in Shaniya Davis' death

---

1 / 3

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The mother of a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl who was murdered almost four years ago will spend at least 17 years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to several charges in her death.

Antoinette Nicole Davis, 29, entered Alford pleas to second-degree murder, human trafficking, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sex offense, felony child abuse with prostitution, child abuse involving a sex act, sexual servitude, indecent liberties with a child and conspiracy to commit sex offense of a child. She was sentenced to between 210 and 261 months in prison.

An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty, while maintaining his or her innocence, because there is sufficient evidence to find him or her guilty. The plea deal, which included the dismissal of a first-degree rape charge, heads off a trial that was scheduled to begin Oct. 28.

Shaniya Davis was reported missing from her Fayetteville home on Nov. 10, 2009. Her body was found six days later in an overgrown field on the Lee-Harnett county line, and an autopsy determined that she had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.
Mario Andrette McNeill, 32, was convicted in May of kidnapping and assaulting Shaniya before killing her, and he was sentenced to death.

Davis apologized to Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, in court Friday, saying she had been too proud to let his family care for their daughter.

"I want to say I did the best I could with my children," she said. "I never said I was a perfect mother, but I was a good mother. I did what I had to provide for them. I did what I had to to make sure they were alright. I didn't have any help from anybody."

Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons tersely disagreed.

"You could have saved your daughter's life, and you did not. You had the time, the opportunity and the means to save Shaniya's life, and you did not," he said.

"You are not a good mother. This did not have to happen."

Ammons ordered her to register as a sex offender for 30 years and suggested that she receive psychological counseling in prison.

Defense attorney D.W.Bray said Davis always felt morally responsible for what happened to Shaniya.

Lockhart said he still grieves for his daughter but said he forgave Davis a long time ago and that he knows Shaniya did as well.

"Maybe you can take this time and dig deep within you and help others by sharing your story," he told Davis.

The hastily arranged plea followed a pre-trial motions hearing Friday morning in which Ammons denied an attempt by the defense to keep Davis' statements to police out of her trial.

Bray argued that investigators browbeat Davis over four days of questioning about Shaniya's disappearance, and they never advised her of her rights to remain silent or to confer with an attorney. On the fourth day, he said, she finally "broke."

"I gave her to him to cover $200. He was only supposed to have sex," a sobbing Davis told investigators at the time.

Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West said McNeill previously lent Davis $200 to buy food and pay for a hotel room when she and her children were homeless. Information in an autopsy report claimed the debt to be drug-related, but West said that was incorrect.

McNeill came to the Fayetteville mobile home park where Davis lived on Nov. 10, 2009, to have sex with someone else, West said, but when that fell through, he went to Davis' home and demanded that she either pay him the $200 or have sex with him.

When Davis refused, McNeill took Shaniya instead, West said, adding that investigators never believed her claims that she tried to stop McNeill from taking her daughter.

A feces-covered blanket found in a trash can outside Davis' home suggests that Shaniya was sexually assaulted inside, West said.

The rape charge was dismissed against Davis because McNeill was acquitted of that charge, which would have made it difficult to convict her, West said. Also, prosecutors reduced a first-degree murder charge against Davis to second-degree murder, he said, because they didn't feel they had enough evidence to obtain a first-degree murder conviction.

http://www.wral.com/mother-pleads-guilty-in-shaniya-davis-death/13011614/