Judge denies bid by girl's accused killer to avoid death penalty trial

Fayetteville, N.C. — The man accused of buying, raping and killing a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl in November 2009 could face the death penalty, if convicted in his trial next month, after a judge denied a defense motion Friday.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 32, 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 her Fayetteville home.

More Info WRAL.com archive: Shaniya Davis case

McNeill's attorneys asked that the state be barred from seeking the death penalty in the case, but Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons denied the request. The basis for the motion wasn't clear.

Defense attorneys Butch Pope and Terry Alford also asked to delay the trial by 60 days to give attorneys more time to review video from four cameras at the mobile home park where Shaniya was taken. Ammons denied that as well.

Ammons said he would decide which crime scene and autopsy photos prosecutors can show to the jury after the defense asked that none be shown.

McNeill said nothing during the brief hearing – his last court appearance before jury selection begins for his trial on Feb. 18.

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.

Antoinette 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 also had been scheduled to go on trial on Feb. 18, but prosecutors said her trial will start separately, likely in March. Prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty against her.

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Latest Comments

If you want quick justice, perhaps he should get 18 months probation, and then be released, with "time off for good behaviour."

bgibson3
January 18, 2013 4:44 p.m.

Good, now maybe her mother will get the same.

chichi
January 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.

punish severly and maybe your brothers sisters children will realize crime does not pay. This baby was not asked if she wanted to be assulted but maybe by the time he was through hurting her she wanted to be out of the pain.

sunshine1040
January 15, 2013 11:23 a.m.

"The protection of innocents has to be put first, always and all ways. PERIOD!!!"

I agree that's what it OUGHT to be about. When people assume, before trial, what the outcome must be or else, I think they put their own kneejerk, emotional desires ahead of that. Again, in the immediate aftermath of Shaniya's death, THIS VERY MESSAGE BOARD was calling for the death of the wrong guy, who was arrested first. People here let their emotions cloud their judgment in their posts here.

As for putting the protection of the innocents first, one way we can do this is by not insisting every petty criminal be punished so severely he or she has no hope of forgiveness or opportunity and simply goes deeper and deeper into crime, until something like this happens. Had Mr. O'Neill's previous offenses been publicized here, no doubt numerous taxpayers would have objected to measures that might have paid for his education. Think how much better off Shaniya might be now if we'd been more sensible then.

jackflash123
January 14, 2013 1:50 p.m.

Thank God!!!!! Let me smirk back at him since he got a chance to smirk at cameras when he walked into the court room. That smirk was on tv - I could have shot throught that tv and gone after him. But unlike him that's not my style. I will only smirk back.

IPayYouPay
January 14, 2013 9:23 a.m.