"You have a lot of people in shock right now."
Ex-Con, Mother Arrested in Child's Sale, Rape and Murder
By: John Brown's Bones
Security camera footage clearly shows Mario McNeail kidnapping 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.
Shaniya Davis's suffocated body was found 100 feet from a rural Fayetteville road Tuesday November 16th 2009. After a week search in Cumberland County, police turned up hotel surveilance video of a strange man holding a small girl that looked like Shaniya. Investigators tracked down and arrested Mario Andrette McNeail, 29, a man with a violent criminal background including Felonious Assault and Manufacturing Crack Cocaine. Since 2001, he has spent terms of 8 months to four years in prison for these previous convictions.
Today, Shaniya's mother Antoinette Davis, 25, has been charged with the unthinkable. Davis is charged with Child Abuse and Human Trafficking for selling her 5-year-old daughter to Mario Andrette McNeail who then allegedlly raped and killed her.
In central North Carolina, Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance spoke about the discovery of Shaniya's body that changed this from a missing person's case into a rape and murder investigation.
"We've got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up," Chance said. "Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock right now."
Shaniya Davis when she was "sold" by her mother to Mario McNeail who raped and murdered her.
Authorities have charged McNeail with kidnapping and stated that McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty. Arrest warrants state Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and killed on November 10th while her mother told investigators many different versions of what happened to her daughter until the body was discovered Tuesday.
Antoinette Davis' mother, Ann Summers, was at the November 13th bail hearing for her daughter and McNeail. Afterward, she said she didn't know how McNeail got hold of her granddaughter or even knew anybody in her family.
"To me, he ain't nothing but a maggot," Summers said to reporters.
Shaniya Davis's funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday November 22nd at Manna Church, 5117 Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville.
UPDATE 05/2013
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.
References:
WRAL Channel 5, Warrants Allege Rape and Murder of child
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections, Inmate #07883 Mario Andrette Davis
I Cannot Blog, 5-year-old Shaniya Davis Found Dead
Huffington Post, The body of Shaniya Davis recovered
By: John Brown's Bones
Security camera footage clearly shows Mario McNeail kidnapping 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.
Shaniya Davis's suffocated body was found 100 feet from a rural Fayetteville road Tuesday November 16th 2009. After a week search in Cumberland County, police turned up hotel surveilance video of a strange man holding a small girl that looked like Shaniya. Investigators tracked down and arrested Mario Andrette McNeail, 29, a man with a violent criminal background including Felonious Assault and Manufacturing Crack Cocaine. Since 2001, he has spent terms of 8 months to four years in prison for these previous convictions.
Today, Shaniya's mother Antoinette Davis, 25, has been charged with the unthinkable. Davis is charged with Child Abuse and Human Trafficking for selling her 5-year-old daughter to Mario Andrette McNeail who then allegedlly raped and killed her.
In central North Carolina, Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance spoke about the discovery of Shaniya's body that changed this from a missing person's case into a rape and murder investigation.
"We've got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up," Chance said. "Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock right now."
Shaniya Davis when she was "sold" by her mother to Mario McNeail who raped and murdered her.
Authorities have charged McNeail with kidnapping and stated that McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty. Arrest warrants state Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and killed on November 10th while her mother told investigators many different versions of what happened to her daughter until the body was discovered Tuesday.
Antoinette Davis' mother, Ann Summers, was at the November 13th bail hearing for her daughter and McNeail. Afterward, she said she didn't know how McNeail got hold of her granddaughter or even knew anybody in her family.
"To me, he ain't nothing but a maggot," Summers said to reporters.
Shaniya Davis's funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday November 22nd at Manna Church, 5117 Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville.
UPDATE 05/2013
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.
References:
WRAL Channel 5, Warrants Allege Rape and Murder of child
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections, Inmate #07883 Mario Andrette Davis
I Cannot Blog, 5-year-old Shaniya Davis Found Dead
Huffington Post, The body of Shaniya Davis recovered
