Warrants: Girl abducted, raped, killed on same day

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Shaniya Nicole Davis was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her Fayetteville home, according to arrest warrants released Friday.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, of 2613 Pine Springs Drive, was charged late Thursday with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child. He said little and showed no emotion during a brief court appearance Friday afternoon.

After the hearing, he was transferred from the Cumberland County Detention Center to Central Prison in Raleigh, where he was being kept in a special cell for his protection.

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Antoinette Nicole Davis reported her 5-year-old daughter missing from their Fayetteville home on Nov. 10. The girl's body was found in a patch of kudzu off a rural road near the Lee-Harnett County line six days later.

Arrest warrants state Shaniya was sexually assaulted and killed on Nov. 10.

She died of asphyxiation, according to preliminary autopsy results.

Her funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Manna Church, 5117 Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville.

McNeill was charged with first-degree kidnapping a week ago in Shaniya's disappearance. He surrendered to police after the release of hotel security video from a Comfort Suites in Sanford that appears to show him carrying Shaniya on the morning of her disappearance.

In an affidavit for a warrant to search McNeill's 1997 Mitsubishi Galant, investigators said McNeill told them he picked Shaniya up in front of her home and drove her to the hotel.

McNeill's mother attended the Friday afternoon court hearing, but she left quickly without speaking to reporters.

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Davis' mother, Ann Summers, also was at the hearing. Afterward, she said she didn't know how McNeill got her granddaughter or even knew anybody in her family.

"To me, he ain't nothing but a maggot," Summers said.

Davis, 25, was arrested Saturday and 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."

Summers said her daughter never would have prostituted Shaniya. She also denied that Davis was involved with drugs.

"She had her stuff together. She had her own house, and she kept it clean. She took care of her child. She did what a mother was supposed to do for her kids," she said.

Police haven't said whether Davis could face additional charges or whether anyone else could be arrested in the case.

McNeill had been on probation for an April 2008 conviction for drug possession, speeding to elude arrest and assaulting a government official. Officials ended his supervision in October – six months early – saying he had complied with all requirements.

He also was convicted in 2003 for a triple shooting and in 2007 for another drug offense.

Fayetteville police said the investigation of Shaniya's death has taken an emotional toll on all who have been involved in the case.

"It's still emotional. It's one of those things (that's been) the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and I've seen a lot of stuff," Capt. Mark Bridgeman said.