Shaniya Nicole Davis #3 1/22/12 -

[jammsnana]

Why was he not guilty of raping her?

I'm not sure cookie -- but he was found guilty of : guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, sexual offense of a child, indecent liberties with a child, human trafficking and sexual servitude in the death of Shaniya Davis.
 

And:: He got the DEATH Penalty!!!!! Yeah, the JURY got it Right this time!!! Now, let's give her so called mom her justice!!

[texasmom]

Why was he not guilty of raping her?

I'm not sure cookie -- but he was found guilty of : guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, sexual offense of a child, indecent liberties with a child, human trafficking and sexual servitude in the death of Shaniya Davis.
 

And:: He got the DEATH Penalty!!!!! Yeah, the JURY got it Right this time!!! Now, let's give her so called mom her justice!!

YES!   

[texasmom]

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

Posted: 10:03 a.m. today
Updated: 5:45 p.m. today

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."

 

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."

 
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.

 

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.

[texasmom]

Video at the link

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9119913

[texasmom]

http://youtu.be/IN3oIdSMvgE

Mario McNeill Sentenced to Death
 fayobserver·324 videos

Published on May 29, 2013
Mario McNeill is sentenced to death for the 2009 murder of Shaniya Davis. Before formal sentence was pronounced, Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, spoke to the court and directly spoke to McNeill. After sentence was imposed, we spoke with Cumberland County DA Billy West and Art Pope, one of McNeill's defense attorneys.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IN3oIdSMvgE?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/IN3oIdSMvgE?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0</a>

[texasmom]

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/05/29/1259879?sac=fo.home

Published: 01:36 PM, Wed May 29, 2013
Jury sentences Mario McNeill to death for the murder of Shaniya Davis

Staff photo by James Robinson
Mario McNeill is lead out of the courtroom in handcuffs after being sentenced to death Wednesday afternoon.

By Michael Futch
Staff writer

Mario McNeill was sentenced to death today for the murder of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis in November 2009.

McNeill, 33, declined the opportunity to speak before being sentenced by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons.

Jurors deliberated a little more than a half-hour before reaching a decision.

"I can never get Shaniya back. You've taken that from me,'' said Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya's father. "You were the last thing my daughter got to look at.''

Ammons addressed McNeill before McNeill was escorted from the courtroom.

"You did not have to kill that child,'' Ammons said.

"Take him out of here now,'' Ammons told the bailiffs.

Ammons later apologized to Shaniya's family for not being able to bring them justice. He said the trial was the best that could be done.

Earlier in the day, Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West urged jurors to sentence McNeill to death.

West said the aggravating factors in the case outweighed the mitigating factors. Aggravating factors included McNeill's previous felony assault convictions and his conviction in this case on kidnapping and sex offense charges.

Mitigating factors, which McNeill had allowed his lawyers to compile but not present, included his use of drugs and alcohol at the time of Shaniya's kidnapping and death, the fact that he voluntarily went to the police to be interviewed after Shaniya was reported missing, and his relationship with his own children.

In a 35-minute presentation closing the prosecution's case in the sentencing phase, West told jurors the mitigating factors "certainly are insufficient" against the aggravating factors.

Jurors began deliberating about 12:15 and declined to stop for lunch. The sentence was announced at 1 p.m.

 

The penalty phase began Tuesday. The state called three witnesses to the stand, including two members of Shaniya's family.

The defense lawyers yielded to the request of their client. Though evidence was lined up for the penalty phase, the defense didn't present any testimony. Ammons accepted McNeill's decision, saying that court law indicates that lawyers must abide by their client's wishes.

But he repeatedly questioned the 33-year-old McNeill on the issue: Was McNeill sure he didn't want the defense to present evidence - mitigating factors - or make final arguments to try to persuade the jury to spare his life?

"It doesn't matter really," McNeill said. "I prefer them not to."

Tuesday produced yet another emotional day in court, in what has played out as an often disturbing, bizarre case that's now in its eighth week.

Bradley Lockhart, and Shaniya's half-sister, Cheyenne Lockhart, gave emotional testimony for the prosecution.

Twice, Bradley Lockhart broke down while recalling his little girl, whose body was found in a wooded area off Walker Road in Lee County on Nov. 16, 2009, six days after she went missing. Asphyxiation was ruled as the cause of death. The jury concluded that McNeill was guilty of sex offense with a child.

"I guess whenever you talk about your kid," a flush-faced Lockhart said, "you think they're the best. It hurts to talk about her."

Cheyenne Lockhart told jurors that Shaniya was "like my Mini Me," always following her around, always wanting to put on her makeup and cling to her whenever she had to leave.

"It's hard," she said, pausing to regain her composure. "It's painful. Just to know she was once here and somebody took her away. There's not a day I don't think about her."

 

McNeill could be seen smiling during portions of the day's proceedings. As he has done over the last couple of weeks, he spent much of his time making origami cranes. A pile of the bird-like figures were clustered together at his side on the defendant's table.

At one point, a stern-faced Ammons asked, "Are you listening?"

"I clearly don't mean any disrespect," Ammons said, "but what I'm saying is more important than that origami."

McNeill told Ammons that origami, which is the Japanese art of folding paper, helps him to think.

Though the defense had discussions with McNeill on Friday about his request not to argue his case, Alford told Ammons that his client had made the final decision earlier in the morning.

Ammons followed up by first pressing McNeill on the matter.

"Lawyers tell me you don't want to participate. Can you tell me why?" he asked.

"I would," McNeill said softly, "but I don't want to."

"I've seen you smile when you're saying that," Ammons said. "Do you understand how serious this is?"

"Yes."

The judge then asked the defendant if he understood that North Carolina's death penalty is real.

"Because we haven't put anybody to death in a long time doesn't mean we don't have the death penalty," Ammons said. "You understand this?"

"Yes."

"Because a judge recently reversed four death sentences and made them life doesn't mean we don't have a death penalty. Do you understand that there's a real possibility that the jury could sentence you to death and that that sentence could be carried out?"

"Yes."

"And you're telling me you don't want to resist that in any way?"

Again, McNeill answered with a yes.

His lawyers told the court that they opposed McNeill's decision but had found themselves at an impasse.

Besides first-degree murder, McNeill was found guilty of first-degree kidnapping, human trafficking with a child victim, sexual servitude with a child victim, sexual offense of a child and indecent liberties with a child.

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

[texasmom]

 



 

 

[texasmom]

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/05/30/1260003?nid=

Published: 10:21 PM, Wed May 29, 2013
Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya Davis' father, reflects on Mario McNeill trial and verdict

By Michael Futch
Staff writer

Bradley Lockhart said he found no closure, no reason to celebrate Wednesday following the jury's verdict of death for the convicted killer of his daughter, Shaniya.

But at least, he said, he and his family have some answers.

And, he added, those answers bring some comfort.

As for his reaction to Mario McNeill's punishment, Lockhart said his position has never changed in the 43 months since the body of his 5-year-old daughter was found in a wooded area about 30 miles from her home.

"It's up to God and the justice system and these jurors, who made the decision," said Lockhart in a phone interview early Wednesday evening, hours after the sentencing phase had concluded.

"And I accept it, and I think it's a fair and just one," he said.

 

"It's been difficult for everybody involved," he said. "This isn't new for me. My feelings haven't changed over the years. It still feels like it just happened. I guess in simple terms, nothing has changed. Really not with the verdict - the verdict with Mario and Shaniya. Although she's got some justice, you can never really bring her back."

Shaniya would have turned 9 years old June 14, he said.

"To have another birthday picture done is never going to happen," he said.

 

Over the last three years, Lockhart said, he has served as an advocate to end child trafficking with several organizations, including Stop Child Trafficking Now. He anticipates another round of public speeches on behalf of Shaniya Speaks, a nonprofit group that works to raise awareness of sexual crimes against children.

He said he expects to be in Fayetteville for the trial of Antoniette Nicole Davis, Shaniya's mother. That trial could begin in the fall.

During court testimony, Lockhart said he had met Davis at a party. Their relationship, he said, was a brief one, and that he only learned she was pregnant with his child shortly before she gave birth.

Authorities said Davis gave Shaniya to McNeill to settle a drug debt.

As for her trial, Lockhart said, he is hoping for justice and the truth.

"Shaniya deserves the truth," he said. "I really want people to understand this isn't solely about Bradley Lockhart and her siblings, but truly about Shaniya and the justice she deserved."

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

[Sister]

I am so glad this jury got it right!
 

Now on to that POS Davis!

[cookie]

I am so glad this jury got it right!
 

Now on to that POS Davis!

Me too! Bout time!

[Tina Bee]

I'm so glad Mario McNeil was convicted and received the death penalty!!! 

Now onto Davis. May justice be served. RIP Shaniya.

[MuffyBee]

I'm so glad Mario McNeil was convicted and received the death penalty!!! 

Now onto Davis. May justice be served. RIP Shaniya.

 

Good to see you Tina Bee!   

Hoping and praying for justice for Shaniya.  We're almost there.   

[texasmom]

 

http://www.wral.com/slain-girl-s-mom-i-gave-her-to-him-to-cover-200-/13011101/

Posted: 10:34 a.m. today
Updated: 12:03 p.m. today

Slain girl's mom: 'I gave her to him to cover $200'

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A judge ruled Friday that statements made to police by the mother of a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl who was murdered almost four years ago can be used during her upcoming trial, despite defense arguments that investigators bullied her during days of questioning.

Antoinette Nicole Davis, 29, faces numerous charges in connection with Shaniya Davis' death, and defense attorneys said prosecutors should be barred from introducing her statements to police as evidence at her trial, which is scheduled to start Oct. 28.

Shaniya was reported missing from her Fayetteville home on Nov. 10, 2009, and Fayetteville police talked to Davis, other family members and neighbors to generate information to help locate her.

Davis' lawyers said Friday that investigators questioned her on and off over four days but never advised her of her rights to remain silent and to confer with an attorney. Prosecutors responded by saying that she was never under arrest during the questioning – she was there only to help police find her daughter – and so never had to be read her Miranda rights.

"She was arguably coerced and bullied by two law enforcement officers," defense attorney D.W. Bray said, noting that, by the fourth day of questioning, she was sobbing and, in the words of prosecutors, "broke."

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

The statement led police to Mario Andrette McNeill and eventually to Shaniya's body, which was found Nov. 16, 2009, in an overgrown field on the Lee-Harnett county line. An autopsy determined that she had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.

McNeill, 32, was convicted in May of kidnapping and assaulting Shaniya before killing her, and he was sentenced to death.

Prosecutors allege that Davis gave Shaniya to McNeill to settle a drug debt.

She had been charged with 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. Prosecutors on Friday also charged her with criminal conspiracy and first-degree kidnapping.

 

[texasmom]

 

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

Posted: 12:18 p.m. today
Updated: 9 minutes ago
Mother pleads guilty in Shaniya Davis' death
Antoinette Davis in court

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 and indecent liberties with 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.

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

Defense attorney D.W. 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.

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 trailer park in November park to have sex with someone else, West said, but when that fell through, he went to Davis' trailer 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' trailer suggests that Shaniya was sexually assaulted in the trailer, 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.

[texasmom]

I hope she spends a lot more than 17 years in prison.  JMO   

[texasmom]

http://www.wncn.com/story/23728590/judge-rules-antoinette-davis-statements-can-be-used

Antoinette Davis reaches plea deal
Posted: Oct 18, 2013 11:19 AM CST Updated: Oct 18, 2013 12:41 PM CST
by WNCN Staff
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -

A plea deal has been reached for Antoinette Davis in a Fayetteville courtroom.

Davis entered an Alford plea, which means she doesn't admit guilt but realizes evidence could convict her.

She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, multiple sex charges and conspiracy. The charges also include first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit.

She is expected to get 17.5 years to 21 years and 9 months in prison.

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9291946

Antoinette Davis pleads guilty in murder of daughter Shaniya
Updated at 01:52 PM today


Shaniya Davis and her mother Antoinette.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- Antoinette Davis entered guilty pleas Friday to several charges against her in the 2009 kidnapping and murder of her daughter Shaniya.

In a deal worked out with prosecutors, Davis did not plead guilty to first-degree murder - as originally charged - but entered so-called Alford pleas to second-degree murder and a host of other charges including first-degree kidnapping and felony child abuse.

Under North Carolina law, an Alford plea means the defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes prosecutors have enough evidence to likely get a conviction.

Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons sentenced Davis to between 17 and a half and 21 years in prison.

 

[texasmom]

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/10/17/1289977

Published: 07:22 AM, Thu Oct 17, 2013
Man convicted of killing Shaniya Davis kept separate from other inmates

By Michael Futch
Staff writer

The man convicted of murdering 5-year-old Shaniya Davis is largely being confined to his death row cell at Central Prison for security reasons.

Mario Andrette McNeill, who was sentenced to death in May for killing Shaniya in November 2009, will remain on intensive control status on death row indefinitely, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

"I don't know when it will end," he said Wednesday. "He has regular control reviews. He's evaluated periodically."

According to the state Department of Correction Division of Prisons, intensive control status is a long-term removal from other inmates for repeatedly disruptive behavior, noncompliance with instructions and orders, or a transition following assignment to maximum control status.

In June, McNeill was reassigned from maximum to intensive control status at the prison, Acree said.

"He's confined to his cell 23 hours a day. He comes out for a shower and brief recreation period," Acree said. "It's very limited contact with other (death-row) inmates, and he probably has reduced privileges."

McNeill, 33, was involved in an assault in January 2011 during a safe-keeping period at Central Prison before his trial in Cumberland County, Acree said, and there has been at least one other infraction since.

But those infractions, he said, are not the reason he is being held in confinement.

"It was a management decision based on security concerns," he said. "These concerns have existed ever since he has been there."

On May 29, a 12-member jury took 39 minutes to recommend that McNeill be sentenced to death. The same jury convicted him of kidnapping, sexually abusing and murdering Shaniya, whose body was found in woods off N.C. 87.

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9291946

Antoinette Davis pleads guilty in murder of daughter Shaniya
Updated at 02:07 PM today

Legal experts said Davis will likely spend a total of 20 years behind bars.

[texasmom]