Via: WRAL.com
The man charged with killing 5-year-old Shaniya Nicole Davis will get a new lawyer to represent him.
Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, of 2613 Pine Springs Drive, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape of a child and first-degree kidnapping in Shaniya’s death.
She was reported missing from her Fayetteville home on Nov. 10. Her body was found in a patch of kudzu off a rural road near the Lee-Harnett County line six days later.
She died of asphyxiation, according to preliminary autopsy results.
Fayetteville attorney Allen Rogers represented McNeill during his initial court appearances, but he has withdrawn from the case, saying a public defender could provide McNeill with more resources.
McNeill’s next court date is set for Jan. 27.
Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, has been charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation. Arrest warrants state that Davis “did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude” and “did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya.”
McNeill and Antoinette Davis are being held in state prisons in Raleigh for their own protection, authorities said
