November 16, 2009 9:47 AM

Shaniya Davis Missing: Mother Arrested for Human Trafficking, Putting Daughter in "Sexual Servitude"

By
Edecio Martinez
Topics
Daily Blotter
(AP/City of Fayetteville Police Dept)
Photo: Antoinette Nicole Davis.

Story Contributed by CBS Affiliate WRAL-TV

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (CBS/WRAL) North Carolina police now say that the mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Nicole Davis, who has been missing since Tuesday, forced her child into sexual servitude and prostitution.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

Fayetteville police charged Antoinette Nicole Davis on Saturday with charges including human trafficking, child abuse involving prostitution, filing a false police report and resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer.

According to arrest documents cited by The Fayetteville Observer, Davis "knowingly provide(d) Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit(ted) an act of prostitution."

Shaniya was reported missing from her home on Tuesday morning. Her mother told police she put Shaniya on a couch at 5:30 a.m., but the girl was gone when she checked on her about an hour later.

The girl is still missing, and police provided no information Saturday on her possible whereabouts.

"The investigation is ongoing to determine if there will be any additional charges," Sgt. John Somerindyke said. "Of course, finding Shaniya is the top priority."

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

Antoinette Nicole Davis was being held Saturday at the Cumberland County Detention Center under a $51,000 bond.

"My daughter's a good mother. She's a straight-up good mother," Ann Summers, Antoinette Nicole Davis' mother, said Saturday after hearing of the arrest.

Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, told The Associated Press he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He said Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently got a job and her own home, so he decided to give her a chance to raise their daughter.

"I should've never let her go over there," he said.

Lockhart described his relationship with Davis as a "one-night stand" and said he and Davis never argued about him raising Shaniya.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

"Shaniya is a precious young lady, and she is special," he said.

(Family Photo/WRAL-TV)
Family Photo: Shaniya Davis.

Police also have Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, in custody in connection with the case.

Police have said that McNeill admitted to taking the girl, although his attorney told the Associated Press that he will plead not guilty to a charge of first-degree kidnapping.

His arrest Friday came after a worker at a Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford reported seeing a child matching Shaniya's description with a man at the hotel Tuesday.

A security video showed the girl with a man believed to be McNeill at the hotel at 6:11 a.m. By the time Fayetteville investigators reached the hotel, however, the man and the child had checked out, police said.

Police have not commented on McNeill's relationship to Shaniya and her family. Lockhart said he does not know McNeill.

He is being held in the Cumberland County Detention Center under a $100,000 bond. His criminal record includes arrests for fleeing to elude arrest, assault on a female and drug possession.

Shaniya is described as 3 feet tall and 40 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt with pink underwear. She is thin and has a scar on her foot.

Anyone with information on Shaniya's whereabouts is asked to call the Fayetteville Police Department at 910-433-1856 or Crime Stoppers at 910-483-8477.

Story Contributed by CBS Affiliate WRAL-TV

MEDIA
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
November 17, 2009 - Antoinette Davis, Mom Accused of Selling Shaniya Davis as Sex Slave, is Pregnant Again
November 17, 2009 - Shaniya Davis, Fallen "Angel" Remembered In Pictures
November 16, 2009 - Mario Andrette McNeill: Things May Get Much Worse for Man Charged With Kidnapping Shaniya Davis
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Found Dead; Mother Turned Little Girl Into Sex Slave, Say Police
November 16, 2009 - Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya Davis' Father, Pled For Girl's Return in Vain
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Found Dead; Mother Turned Little Girl Into Sex Slave, Say Police
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Not Found: Cops Fear Missing Child is Dead, Search Focuses on Body
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis: Missing 5-Year-Old Seen in Horrifying Hotel Video
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Missing: Mother Arrested for Human Trafficking, Putting Daughter in "Sexual Servitude"
November 11, 2009 - 5-Year-Old Shaniya Davis Missing; Foul Play Suspected


Add a Comment See all 21 Comments
by dudedudley January 8, 2010 6:15 PM EST
Is Antoinette Davis still charged with trafficking? What evidence does the police have that she did this? They never said what they based their charges on. When will this go to the grand jury? What is going on?
Reply to this comment
by babygirl2466 December 22, 2009 12:36 AM EST
I feel for her father, because he is feeling a lot of guilt about his decision to let her go live with her mother. Sweety, you thought you were doing the right thing by including her mother in her life, you did not know she would end up being the monster that she turned out to be. May God give you the strenght to go on and forgive yourself. None of this is your fault, there is just some F***** up people in the world and your one-night stand turned out to be one of them. She does not deserve to live nor do mario. They are the scum of the earth. Their souls will rot in hell forever.
Reply to this comment
by babygirl2466 December 22, 2009 12:22 AM EST
I am a grandmother and mother. How could a mother do something like this to her child. What really needs to be done is all parties involved should be taken into the woods, spread eagle and tied to the trees using raw hide straps soaked in water. Then have little squares cut all over their bodies like tic-tac-toe, with sea salt poured into the wounds, and fireants place on them after being doused with alcohol and left to feel the pain and agony this little baby felt at their hands. They should be left to let the straps dry and cut into their skin as the fireants eat away at their flesh with the male parts cut and stuffed into their mouths and sticks rammed into their private areas. What they did to this beautiful little baby is wrong and they should suffer also. They should not be given a chance to live the rest of their lives out in prison. And as for the mother, she does not deserve to live either. The baby she is carrying needs to be taken away from her right after birthing it and she should be put to death right then and there. Her mother says she would not harm her children. That is a lie, she harmed them while she was smoking crack. They way she talks she doesn't need any children either. Who's to say she had nothing to do with it. She so bent on defending the monster she raised.
Reply to this comment
by nakeisha31 December 6, 2009 12:21 AM EST
i have a daughter i lost custody of in a divorce how my husband did it was wrong. but that little girl i wish i could have been there to help her i would have killed that sorry man i hope they rape him and her mother then kill them im so mad i want to go to prison and kill them my self god speed little ms davis you will be missed now you can have a life sweet heart
Reply to this comment
by ReneeMM November 23, 2009 10:43 AM EST
she shouldnt even be called a mother, but a murderer, she should be charged for murdering her own daughter period!
all for stinking drugs to sell this beutiful little girl Shaniya and hope this stupid brood will be charged with murder she caused her death.

what is the matter with people today not hearing they got problems everyone does but we know the right from worng period!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
death penalty they both should get.
your daughter isnt a good mother shes a peice of **** thats wasted on this earth!!! sorry to the mom for saying this but its true and i have a good mom and im a good daughter. not ur daughter shes not.!!!!! This piece of **** who killed her needs to die too death penalty needs to come back so crimes like this will diminish when they know death is gonna look them in the face after a horrific crime like this.

when they know they killed someone right then and there is when they should be shot no more of tax payers paying for this BS in jail 3 meals a day, medical, and get to live whats wrong with our system what wrong with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! though when preseiden busch was president he was gonna bring back the death penalties what happened to that was it a lot of hot air he was talking out of his butt!!!!! president obama please bring the death penalty back ion every state please!!!!!!!! god say shall not murder and eye for an eye yeah right BS wheres the eye for an eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this comment
by meishaconner November 19, 2009 6:07 PM EST
I too am disgusted and disheartened by this horrific crime. It breaks my heart. I do agree with most of you. I hope this woman rots in hellll. How could she do this. And now she is pregnant again What the ****!!!! Hurry and save that child please. I don't know if she is guilty but, I have a strong feeling that she is not so innocent. I believe she definetely was going to sell her for sex. But, this is the saddest thing and I just truly hopes she pays. And this guy who took her to the hotel let's not forget about him!
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by jeffkindelspire November 19, 2009 10:10 AM EST
What a tragic experience...May God be with this young life taken and have mercy. Everyday a progressive decay in our society seems to rock our understanding, shatters our hope. Our culture has rejected the fundamental principles of the gospel. This is the results.
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by thoughtmatrix November 18, 2009 12:25 PM EST
A lot of hatred for a woman that nobody knows for sure did this or not. I'm not saying she's innocent because I have no idea, and if she did do what they say she is I hope she gets the death penalty, but it would hardly be the first time cops rushed into judgment and arrested someone just to clear a high profile case that has people up in arms. I'll wait till all the facts are in to form an opinion. Regardless of what comes to light it's a horrible tragedy and an evil that's just impossible to comprehend.
Reply to this comment
by babygirl2466 December 22, 2009 12:27 AM EST
As a mother, I do not want to believe she had anything to do with the death, and rape of her daughter, but then reality hits and I realize that anything is possible. One minute the baby is on the couch the next shes gone, now what does that tell you.
by barballen52 November 17, 2009 7:13 PM EST
What is it going to take to stop the madness????

If I hear one more story about some precious child's life being exploited and/or extinguished because some severely disturbed individual(s)(who is/are directly or indirectly responsible for the child)has absolutely no clue how to nurture and love anyone or anything other than their own impulses/needs/agenda - I'm gonna scream! What can we do?
Reply to this comment
by aidawedo November 17, 2009 11:56 AM EST
There is still a system of justice in America, isn't there, where people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law?

Apparently not, especially in light of the crimes against humanity that have been committed by the "justus" American system--people being "designated enemy combatants", rendered, tortured and held without habeas corpus. Shame on you America.
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