Antoinette Davis: Second Shaniya Davis Trial Delayed Until October 28, 2013

Antoinette Davis is escorted into court during a hearing in October 2010; she will not face the death penalty for prostituting her daughter Shaniya Davis to Mario Andrette McNeill (Courtesy: SpillDaBeanz.com)

Yeah, I’ve been watching developments with this, too.

There was first a delay in the trial of Shaniya Davis’ mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, until Monday, October 14, and then another one was announced in late September until Monday, October 28. Paperwork, always paperwork.

The trial for the mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis has been postponed until Oct. 28.

Antoinette Davis’ trial was originally scheduled to begin Oct. 14 in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Davis, 29, is accused of giving her child to Mario Andrette McNeill on Nov. 10, 2009, to settle a drug debt.

McNeill was convicted of Shaniya’s murder and sentenced to death in May.

Davis’ trial was continued because of a delay in getting the transcripts from McNeill’s trial, said Dollie Bray, who assists her husband, lawyer D.W. Bray, who is representing Davis. The defense and prosecutors needed the opportunity to look at the transcripts, said Dollie Bray.

Again, Antoinette Davis does not face the death penalty but life in prison. At present, she is still being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center; she is not out on bail.

Davis is accused of 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.

I still wonder whether there is going to be any more obfuscation on the true facts of who really delivered Shaniya up to McNeill, whether it was her sister or whether it was Antoinette herself. Apparently, the sister, Brenda Davis, had more to gain from making McNeill happy, not Antoinette. It was Brenda who had slept with McNeill for three months prior to the murder. This is what I wrote in April during McNeill’s trial.

Now, this is interesting, only because it shows what Mario McNeill’s attorneys are up to. I think that it was mentioned before during the first few days of Shaniya’s disappearance and murder that there was a family connection to McNeill, that either Antoinette Davis herself or her sister Brenda Davis had slept with him. After their break-up, Brenda, now 23, became pregnant by the brother of the then-girlfriend of Mario McNeill, April Autry. Now it’s coming up again, and it brings up a hitherto undiscussed (at least publicly) aspect of the case. What if it had been Brenda Davis who pimped and sold off her niece to Mario McNeill?

Now get this: in order to stay within McNeill’s orbit, Brenda went and got pregnant by the brother of McNeill’s new girlfriend. Isn’t that a little weird? Antoinette’s sexual exploits before the murder, in comparison, have not been discussed in court or elsewhere or even whether she was serious to the point of marriage with Clarence Coe, her boyfriend at the time, or was trying to make a play for McNeill. Her baby, a daughter, was for Coe, not McNeill. Isn’t that a little funny? Selling a daughter off to fulfill a drug debt? Antoinette was working. Something is wrong here, just as I knew something was wrong when Bradley Lockhart did not face any charges for essentially dumping Shaniya off at her mother’s.

All I am saying is stay tuned for further details. The DA as well as the defense attorneys are going to have to clear up this madness. Not because it might mean Antoinette would be convicted of a lesser charge, but that the right people are prosecuted for this horrible deed.