Shaniya: A Young Life Interrupted

(Photo/CBS/Family Photo)

By Alicia Cruz

Editor-in-Chief

Theblackurbantimes

SHANIYA DAVIS: A YOUNG LIFE BRUTALLY INTERRUPTED

For the past seven days the disappearance and whereabouts of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis gripped us as a nation. We watched helplessly as this case went from an Amber Alert to a homicide with sickening details unfolding each day.

On Monday, we learned that searchers combing a wooded area seven miles from the last place Shaniya was seen discovered little Shaniya's body discarded amongst trash, brush and the carcasses of deer in Sanford, North Carolina. Someone discarded her as if she were trash.

Shaniya Davis was a beautiful, bubbly 5-year-old child who was just learning to ride her scooter before she had the life suffocated out of her allegedly at the hands of Mario McNeil, the man who has been charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering her.

Records show that Shaniya was a Kindergarden student at Morganton Road Elementary School until October.

The Black Urban Times could not locate records indicating that Shaniya was enrolled at another school in Fayetteville at press time.

(Photo/Fayetteville Observer/Mario McNeill)

MARIO MCNEIL: CHILD RAPIST?

McNeil's exact relationship with Shaniya's mother is unclear. Some news reports describe him as the boyfriend of Antoinette Davis; others say he is the former boyfriend of Davis' sister.

Whatever the relationship, police say he is the man seen on a hotel video surveillance tape carrying Shaniya and he is responsible for murdering, kidnapping and raping her.

A search warrant says McNeill picked the girl up in front of the home and drove her to a hotel where she was last seen alive.Police say they collected hair and fibers, clothes, and a straw from McNeill's 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. Police have not said whether McNeill provided the information that prompted the search of the Sanford area, but they made clear Monday that the information did not come from an outside tip.

McNeill had rape and murder added to his charge of kidnapping today.

Police dogs used to search the hotel room McNeil took Shaniya to picked up Shaniya's scent on a towel found in the room, but no other evidence of Shaniya was found there.

ANTOINETTE DAVIS: NEGILENT, ABUSIVE MOTHER WHO SOLD HER CHILD?

Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, reported her daughter missing the morning of November 10. When the police began investigating the childs disappearence, Davis accused Clarence Coe of kidnapping Shaniya.

He was promptly arrested, but released a day later after police acted on a tip from a hotel clerk.

Coe has been alleged to be Davis' current boyfriend and the father of the child Davis is carrying.

Antoinette Davis has been charged with a bevy of crimes including human trafficking. Police documents state that Davis "knowingly provide(d) Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit(ted) an act of prostitution."

Davis, according to Debbie Tanner, the Cumberland County Detention Center Public Information Officer, is being housed in the Special Management Unit of the jail due to her impending pregnancy and the fact that she has been charged with such a heinous crime.

"This is standard protocol for prisoners who are accused of such heinous crimes in order to ensure they do not commit suicide," Officer Tanner told the Black Urban Times.

"Not that Davis has threatened suicide," said Tanner, "We just want to make sure that doesn't happen."

Police have said that at this time, they are not prepared to say if there will be any additional charges added to those Davis is currently facing.

(Photo/CNN NEWS/Antoinette Davis)

Thus far her charges are human trafficking, child abuse and filing a false police report.

Fayetteville police say Davis sold her child for prostitution allegedly to pay "her debts."

How police came to the human trafficking and child abuse charges remain unclear at this time as the investigation continues.A search of North Carolina court records turned up no previous criminal record for Antoinette Davis, but she has been investigated by the Cumberland County Department of Social Services.

(Photo/WRAL Copyright 1998)

Vickie Sue Lockhart and Channel Coleman. Vickie Sue was the wife of Bradley Lockhart. She and her sister, Channel were brutally murdered in March 1998 robbery attempt.

IN-LAWS CLAIM FATHER KNEW MOTHER'S LIFESTYLE WAS DANGEROUS

Statements from neighbor's, family members and the in-laws of Bradley Lockhart claim they, as well as Lockhart, were aware of the unsafe conditions in which little Shaniya Davis was living within when she was with her mother, which is why they were against Shaniya going to live with her mother.

Byron Coleman, Lockhart's deceased wife's father, stated that he offered to look after Shaniya because he knew of the drug use and the people that frequented Antoinette Davis' trailer. People Coleman referred to as, "drug people".

Coleman and his wife say they have cared for their grandchildren, Lockhart's three children with their deceased daughter, Vickie Sue, since her murder.

Vickie Sue Lockhart, along with her 19-year-old sister Channel Coleman and David Epps were found shot to death in a duplex apartment belonging to Epps' brother in March 1998 in what Fayetteville police called a robbery turned homicide. Two men were convicted of the triple homicides, Vincent Thomas and Litdel Burkhalter.

Both men are serving life sentences.

Byron Coleman stated that Bradley Lockhart worked as a Contractor and that his work often kept him out of town. He said that Lockhart did not take him up on his offers to care for Shaniya during those times.

"He (Bradley Lockhart) put the child in that position," Coleman said. "He knew the mother was doing drugs there. He knew that people she associated with was drug people."

NEIGHBOR'S CLAIM: 'WE SAW BRUISES'

Timothy Allen, a neighbor of Bradley Lockhart’s, spoke to reporters with ABC11 News this past Tuesday and had this to say:

"I believe he (Lockhart) is 99 percent the reason this happened in the first place," Allen said. "He came to me and he was like, 'I'm going to let Shaniya go stay with her mom, basically she needs to learn how to be a mom'."

The Allen's have allegedly taken care of Lockhart's 17-year-old daughter, Cheyenne Lockhart, after the Allen’s say Lockhart "kicked her out on the streets".

Myrna Allen, Timothy Allen's wife said that during a recent visit Shaniya made to their home, Allen noticed scars on Shaniya's arms. Allen stated that pointed to the scars and Shaniya responded, "cigarette."

Allen states she said to the child, "From where," and Shaniya replied, " My momma's friends."

"I said, 'they were burning you with butts,' and Shaniya said 'some times'," Myrna Allen said.

MOTHER HAD BEEN REPORTED TO DSS FOR SON, NOT SHANIYA

The timeline of when these burn marks were noticed by the Allen’s is unclear as is Lockhart's knowledge of abuse in Davis' home or his concern about Shaniya's safety.

Early news reports state that Antoinette Davis had been investigated by DSS, but that report was allegedly made in reference to Antoinette Davis' seven-year-old son, not Shaniya. DSS did investigate, but the case was closed. DSS Director Brenda Jackson has declined to comment on her agency's involvement with the Davis family.

FATHER CALLS ALLEGATIONS SPECULATIVE

When asked about the allegations, Lockhart called them "speculation" and said he wasn't going to talk about it.

He did, however, tell an Associated Press reporter, "I should've never let her go over there."

"[Antoinette] had asked if she could be a mother, and I felt she was sincere in asking, and I figured to give her a chance," Bradley Lockhart said during an interview on CBS' The Early Show.

"This isn't about Brad or Antoinette or Mr. McNeill, this about Shaniya and the memory of a beautiful lady, a beautiful angel," Lockhart said.

EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND CHECK PERFORMED FOR DAVIS' JOB

Antoinette Davis worked at an assisted living facility in Fayetteville called the Carolina Inn. A news report stated that CES, a South Carolina-based staffing company, performed an extensive background check on Davis for the Carolina Inn in June 2008.An official stated that Davis had a good employment record at both Carolina Inn and the Haymount Nursing Rehabilitation Facility, but she is no longer employed by the company.

(Photo/Fox NEWS/Family Photo)

Antoinette Davis' mother and sister, Brenda Davis, have both said they do not believe the charges. They say Antoinette is a good person, a "straight up good mother" who would not hurt her children.

Antoinette Davis' aunt, Leona Cromertie, said Antoinette is now pregnant with another child and also has a 7-year-old son.

PATERNAL AUNT HEARD 'ALARM BELLS'

Bradley Lockhart's sister, Carey Lockhart-Davis, disagreed. She says that "alarm bells went off" when her niece went to live with Antoinette Davis for the first time. "I worried about [Shaniya] just as if she was mine. Antoinette and I never really got along because I felt as if she neglected her children. I feel robbed. I feel that Shaniya was robbed," Carey Davis told CBS news.

(Photo/CNN News/Bradley & Carey Lockhart)

LOCKHART'S DAUGHTER ACCUSES FATHER OF 'NOT BEING THERE'

Cheyenne Lockhart says her father wasn't in either of their lives that much.

"I understand he did love [Shainya], but he wasn't always in her life," Cheyenne said. "She was raised by ex-girlfriends, another child's mother in Florida; family and neighbors, I mean other people raised her."

Cheyenne's statements coincide with a statement Lockhart's neighbor, Myrna Allen made about a girlfriend taking care of Shaniya while Bradley Lockhart worked out-of-state.

An alleged girlfriend of Bradley Lockhart's who Myrna Allen referred to only as "Ty", was "taking good care of Shaniya and then one day she was gone," Allen said.

(photo/CBS/Family Photo)

It was at that time, Allen says, that Bradley Lockhart allowed Shaniya to live with her mother in, what neighbors say, was an impoverished trailer park known for drugs and prostitution.

Before going to live with her mother, Shaniya had been living in an upper middle class neighborhood with her father, Bradley Lockhart. Lockhart, a contractor, was out of the state working when he learned of Shaniya's disappearance. He flew back to North Carolina immediately.

Reference: ABC 11 Eyewitness News , CBS News, Fox News, CNN, Associated Press, Fayetteville Observer