Murder Indictments Against Shaniya Davis’ Mother and Her Accused Assailant Coming Up This Summer. Finally.

Little Shaniya Davis at Halloween, perhaps the last Halloween before her murder; she's a fairy, and shyly she's got her hand on her hip. Her Halloween bag is hanging from her wrist. Why has it taken so long for this child to have justice? (Courtesy: Essence.com)

I tried to pick up the embed code on this video regarding Shaniya Davis from a North Carolina local station, Channel 14,  but it’s not to be found.  So I leave you the link to the original article, and you check it out.   It’s a very small article, dated June 6;  however, there is a bit more detail on the video regarding why it’s taken nearly two years to move forward with this case, to the point where Mario Andrette O’Neill, Shaniya Davis’ accused murderer wanted bail, just like Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette, received.   You also get a look at one of the authorities involved in the case.

It has been nearly two years since the case began and there’s still been no trial or formal indictments have been filed in the case of Shaniya Davis.

Her mother Antoinette Davis is out on bond with charges of human trafficking and felony child abuse-prostitution. The man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Shaniya, Mario McNeill, sits in the Cumberland County jail awaiting trial.

“The Fayetteville Police Department had to compile the interviews, the reports, the test etc. from all of those agencies. That investigative file that they have created is in excess of 5,000 pages,” said Cumberland County District Attorney William West.

West says his office just recently received the file. He and his staff will thoroughly review it and plan to seek the appropriate indictments by the end of the summer.

Again, quietly as it is kept, the Fayetteville Observer did not deign to assign this as part of their ongoing news coverage of the Davis case.  Instead, this news was treated as part of the answer to a letter to columnist Bill Kirby Jr. on June 8.  The letter writer, Claudia Swartz, was upset that “[t]he little angel’s mother, Antoinette Davis, is out shopping,” Swartz says. “… How can it be that they have not indicted these two yet?

“The rape and murder of little angelic Shaniya happened over a year ago. I cannot believe this, and am seriously asking myself if the justice system in our city does things just a little differently than others and gets away with it.”

Kirby answered thusly, trying to cool Ms. Swartz’ jets.

Two things, Ms. Swartz, you should know.

One, neither McNeill nor Davis are guilty of any charges they face in this child’s death.

Not yet.

They stand accused.

Two, indictments are expected, according to Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.

“We are going through the files,” says West, who adds that evidence has been in the hands of numerous law enforcement agencies – hence, the delay.

But West expects indictments within the ensuing three months.

“I’d say to expect them this summer,” he says.

Among the agencies reviewing the evidence is the Fayetteville Police Department, which charged McNeill and Davis.

“It’s such a lengthy case,” says Police Chief Tom Bergamine.

He says you could fill wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with the case files.

They say, Ms. Swartz, that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but apparently they are turning … just not fast enough for many who are concerned about the heinous death of an innocent little girl.

You could say that again, but it’s just too bad that the Department of Social Services under its rather authoritarian director, Brenda Reid Jackson–who I believe obstructed the police and internal department investigations, and sanitized the evidence so that heads, including hers wouldn’t roll and state agencies wouldn’t get sued–as well as her neglectful father, Bradley Lockhart, will not be included in the docket alongside Antoinette Davis and Mario Andrette O’Neill.

Stay tuned.  Of course, there is more to come.

~ by blksista on June 20, 2011.