Shaniya Davis' Mother Freed on Bail Last Week

Date: Thursday, March 04, 2010, 5:06 am
By: Denise Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com

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Antoinette Davis (left), who allegedly gave her daughter, Shaniya (right), to a man for sex, was freed on bail last week. (AP)

A deceased five-year-old girl’s mother in North Carolina, who allegedly gave the child to a man for sex, has been released from jail.

The law office in Fayetteville, North Carolina representing Antoinette Davis, confirmed to BlackAmericaWeb.com that the woman was released after posting $51,000 bond last week. Davis is due in court again on April 15, according to attorney D.W. Bray’s office.

Davis had been arrested in November 2009 and charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse, prostitution and filing a false police report in connection with the disappearance of her daughter, Shaniya Davis, Fayetteville police said.

Shortly after the body of the little girl was found, several social networking sites sprang up in her memory. One of those sites, Justice for Shaniya Davis, has had steady activity recently with people writing letters to officials handling the case. That site already has more than 10,700 members from around the country.

“I was so angry, I cried,” said Teriann Davis, one of the administrators for the site, who lives in Georgia. “I couldn’t believe she had been released, and they set the bail so low. Five thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money for people to come up with around tax refund time.”
Teriann Davis is not related to the family involved in this case.

“I didn’t know Shaniya Davis," she told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "I never met her, but for some reason, this has stuck with me. As soon as I heard about it on television, I started praying that she would be found alive. When I learned that she was dead, I was distraught as if I knew her.”

Aprille Turner, a North Carolina resident who is a member of the Facebook group, wrote a letter to the judge handling the case and posted it on the page.

“I do not believe that your decision to set bond is justified, being that Antoinette was charged with such a serious felony offense as human trafficking of a child,” Turner wrote in her letter to Cumberland County, North Carolina District Judge Talmage Baggett Jr.

“Her release has the potential to cause dire consequences. Not only do I feel that Antoinette Davis should be held without bond due to the charge of a felony crime, such as human trafficking of a child, but also because the suspicion of having aided the accused murderer of her own child should keep her in confinement,” she wrote.

Investigators believe that Antoinette Davis  gave the child to Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen with a child matching Shaniya’s description on a surveillance tape at the Sanford Hotel. Shaniya’s mother had reported the child missing from their home in a trailer park in Fayetteville, police said.

Following further investigation, the 29-year-old McNeill was arrested by Fayetteville police, according to a press release from the department. McNeill has been charged with kidnapping, first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child, according to Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine.
Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney has said he is not  guilty.

Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, has said he raised his daughter for several years, but in October 2009 decided to let her stay with her mother.

He described his relationship with Antoinette Davis as a "one-night stand" and said he did not know McNeill.

Antoinette Davis struggled financially over the years, but she had gotten a job and her own place, so Lockhart said he decided to give her a chance with their daughter.

Antoinette Davis reported Shaniya missing on Nov. 10, 2009. Authorities first arrested a man named Clarence Coe, but charges against him were dropped a day later when investigators tracked down McNeill after receiving a tip from .....


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WHY??? What would make a mother so sick in her spirit as to hurt her OWN child? I am a mother and would give my last breath before allowing anyone, man or woman, to hurt my children. Both the mother and the other SICK individual deserve to be in jail. She was only 5 yrs old, my heart cries for this angel. Thank God she is no longer suffering with such an awful mother.


by   
KaTina34
March 10, 2010, 6:20 pm
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A day in the life, I don't believe in the death penalty, BUT for this spawn of Satan, I'd love to rip her heart out of her chest with my bare hands.


by   
Reno112303
March 5, 2010, 10:33 am
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WOMAN OF AMERICA !!! We need to band TOGETHER and in every city have a SAFE HAVEN for OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.WE sit in our MEGA Church on SUNDAY while the CHILDREN are being killed on the streets of AMERICA.There are enough HOUSES OF WORSHIP for CRACKHEADS,PROSTITUTES,or whatever their problems maybe to bring the CHILDREN to a SAFE PLACE and LEAVE THEM . If they want MONEY LET THEM HAVE IT.JUST LEAVE THE CHILDREN AT A SAFE PLACE.WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS FOR OUR CHILDREN? WHY?


by   
Angelambland
March 4, 2010, 10:08 pm
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Does Nancy Grace know about this BULL*$^&(?
I am so serious. If I were a bail bonds agent i wouldnt have accepted her bail for all the money in the world. the pain of it all is too fresh.


by   
Larenda82
March 4, 2010, 8:08 pm
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This**** should be under the jail along with mcneil.May that little angle rest in peace! and god forgive my language.


by   
Shellhead
March 4, 2010, 5:20 pm
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