DeVARION GROSS - 19 Months (2008) - Raleigh NC

Raleigh NC ---- Jury selection has begun in the murder trial of a Garner
mother accused of killing her son and then concealing his death.Sherita
Nicole McNeil of 1852 Spring Drive is charged with first-degree murder
and concealing the death of her son, DeVarion Gross.



It is unclear how the 19-month-old boy died.
His body, clothed only in a diaper, was found wrapped in two plastic
bags inside a trash receptacle, according to investigators.
A medical examiner's report stated the child suffered from "undetermined homicidal violence"
and might have suffered from abuse.The boy's grandmother found his lifeless body
at his mother's home in November 2008, according to investigators.
He had not been seen for nearly a month, investigators reported.

Prosecutors on Friday showed videotapes
of police interviews in which a Garner woman on trial for murder
re-enacts how she claims her 19-month-old son died in 2008.Sherita
Nicole McNeil faces charges of first-degree murder and concealing the
death of DeVarion Gross. McNeil's brother, Anthony, found the boy's
badly decomposed body in his mother's closet, wrapped in a garbage bag
and doused in bleach, in November 2008. Authorities estimate he died six
weeks earlier.During the five-hour interview recorded after her
arrest, McNeil tells police that her son fell and hit his head on a
coffee table. She holds a baby doll to re-enact the scene."He's jumping like this and come, come down, and then went, 'boom,'" she says in the interview.Defense attorneys have said that McNeil didn't call 911 for fear of going to jail and of the boy's father, Eric Chambers."I
was shaking," McNeil says in the recorded interview. Calling the child
by his nickname, she says, "Poodie, Poodie, are you OK?""His body just got real limp, like he was dead," she continues.McNeil cried for the first time at the trial when she watched the recordings of the police interviews.Prosecutors have argued that a medical examiner found that DeVarion's
rib fractures proved that his death could not have happened the way
McNeil said it did. Relatives and caregivers of the boy have testified
that they suspected his mother of abuse and neglect.A guardian, Latracey Gross, cared for DeVarion until McNeil said she wanted him back when he was 8 months old.Defense
attorneys, who have yet to present any witnesses, have said that McNeil
took the boy back under pressure from his father, who is serving time
as a habitual felon.On Friday, prosecutors played numerous audio
files, including taped conversations between McNeil and the father of
her older daughter, Ira James. He is in federal prison in South
Carolina."Nobody else do not understand how I feel about the child, so nobody make me like him," McNeil says in the tapes.On
Tuesday, prosecutors read a letter from McNeil to James that police
found: "I hated that baby and Eric the whole time. All I have for them
is hate. ... I don't love him and I never will," the letter read.In the recorded conversations, James tries to prod McNeil to tell him what happened to DeVarion."Did you do something to your son?" he asks.In response, McNeil mumbles, "I can't, I can't," then trails off.The trial will resume Monday.

Monday’s proceedings in the trial of a Garner mother accused of
murdering her nineteen-month old toddler in late 2008 delivered lengthy
testimony from two forensic experts who reaffirmed that the boy’s
decomposed body contained evidence suggesting he was physically abused
prior to his death.
The state alleges the boy’s mother Sherita McNeil killed her son in
Oct. 2008 and hid his body in a closet before lying to friends, family
and authorities about his whereabouts and later the circumstances
leading to his death.
However, McNeil has told authorities the boy’s death was accidental.
She said he fell and struck his head on a coffee table while jumping on a
couch in McNeil’s apartment on Spring Drive. McNeil has said she tried
to phone for help, but stopped short out of fear of the boy’s imprisoned
father, Eric Chambers, her attorney told jurors last week.
With testimony from the two witnesses, the state wrapped up presentation of its evidence Monday.
The day concluded with a motion from McNeil’s attorney, Wake County
public defender Bryan Collins. Collins asked Wake County Superior Court
Judge Ripley Rand to dismiss the second degree murder charge against
McNeil, saying the prosecution had failed to explain how the boy died or
to connect any of the claims of physical abuse to his death.
“We’re in the dark about what caused this child’s death,” Collins said.
The prosecution will have to convince a jury of McNeil’s guilt
without a definitive cause of death. The autopsy report and the
prosecution’s witnesses did not give a clear explanation of how the boy
died. Examiners have concluded that Gross died from “undetermined
homicidal violence”.
Lead prosecutor Wake County assistant district attorney Melanie
Shekita said McNeil is responsible for the lack of definitive evidence:
the Garner mother stored the boy’s decomposing body in bags inside a
plastic storage container in the bedroom closet of her apartment. He was
missing for six weeks before a family member discovered him Nov. 14,
2008.
On Monday, the state’s witnesses said the way the body was stored
accelerated decomposition of the body making it harder to determine how
Devarion died.
“The State should not be penalized because the defendant destroyed the evidence,” Shekita told Rand.
Shekita had the witnesses recount the results of two forensic
examinations completed shortly after the discovery of 19 month old
Devarion Gross’s body.
Both witnesses said Gross’ injuries suggest he suffered three
separate instances of significant physical trauma in the month before he
died. An autopsy by Dr. Maryanne Gaffney-Kraft of the North Carolina
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed that Devarion had three
broken ribs in various stages of healing at the time of his death.
Gaffney-Kraft acknowledged that injuries like Devarion’s could be
caused in other ways – such as from being in a high-speed vehicle
accident or falling from a great height – but said McNeil’s taped
account of a fall of several feet is inconsistent with his injuries.
“The force is not there,” Gaffney-Kraft said.
Gaffney-Kraft brought in a bone expert for a second opinion on one of
the fractures, believed to have occurred about a week or so before
Devarion died.
Dr. Ann H. Ross, Ph.D., an associate Professor of Anthropology at
N.C. State University testified that children’s bones are malleable and
require greater force to fracture.
Using a small toy doll, she role-played to the jury several scenarios
in which a person could use his or her body weight to create similar
rib injuries in a small child.
“Generally if you see fractures at multiple stages of healing it is indicative of child abuse,” Ross said.
The trial will continue Tuesday morning at Wake County Courthouse.

The jury will begin deliberating the fate of Garner mother, Sherita
McNeil, who is charged with the first degree murder of her 19-month-old
son.She's accused of killing Devarion Gross, dousing him with
bleach and then hiding him in a plastic tub in her closet in November of
2008.On Wednesday, the jury will receive their instructions
and then begin deliberations.Investigators
say the toddler's grandmother is the one who found Gross wrapped up in
two plastic bags, inside a plastic bin, covered with bleach and soaked
sheets, wearing only a diaper.On Tuesday, the jury heard closing
arguments. McNeil's attorney said that she told police the child fell
off the bed and hit his head on a coffee table. They say it was rough
housing that caused bone fractures and ultimately the death of the
toddler.But prosecutors say if it was an accident then why didn't McNeil call 911.
The prosecution played part of the phone call where McNeil speaks with her
daughter's father just three weeks before her baby was last seen alive.
"I be beating his a** every day, like I be literally beating his a**
like, he be having bruises all over his face, his back everywhere," said
McNeil."You gotta stop," answers Ira James."I can't help it," McNeil said.
"I look at him and I, I just slap him right in the face."
If convicted, McNeil could spend the rest of her life in prison.

A jury found a Garner mother guilty of first degree murder in the death of her son.Jurors
decided Sherita McNeil is responsible for 19-month-old Devarion Gross'
death that happened 2 years ago. It took two days of deliberations for
the jury to come to a decision, but ultimately the jury decided Sherita
McNeil is guilty of killing her son—dousing his body in bleach, wrapping
him up in plastic bags and hiding his body in her closet.Prosecutors said that it was an extremely difficult case to handle."Obviously
I'm happy that she was held responsible for the murder of her child
but, you saw tears of the jurors and even from the judge. There's
nothing that makes me feel good about the death of a child," said
Melanie Skekita, assistant district attorney.McNeil was calm when
she heard the verdict. Before they made their decision, jurors asked
another time to listen to a phone call between McNeil and the father of
one of her children, Ira James.One juror said that it was that phone call that convinced him McNeil was to blame."By her own admissions she hated him, and she didn't want him," said James Powers, juror.During
the trail, jurors heard tape of phone calls between McNeil and James
where she told him she hates Devarion and abuses him. Yesterday the jury
asked to review letters that McNeil had written to Devarion's
father—Eric Chambers. Prosecutors said James and McNeil had a plan to
say she was raped and forced to keep Davarion.The defense has
argued that the toddler fell off the bed and hit his head. But
prosecutors have said if it was an accident why didn't McNeil call 911.
McNeil's attorney said because she was afraid Chambers, who was a gang
member, could have killed her. But the prosecution countered that
argument with the letters in which McNeil said she wanted to be with
Chambers.McNeil will now spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.