Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/774378
JANUARY 18-24, 2017 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200. NEWS Accredited by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board If you would like more information about the Cumberland County Department of Public Health's programs and services, health-related data, or community resources, please call 910-433-3600 or visit with someone at the information desk or visit our website at co.cumberland.nc.us/health.aspx#. Comments are welcome and can be submitted on our website at co.cumberland.nc.us/health/comment_form.aspx. The Health Department is located at 1235 Ramsey St. in Fayetteville. Buck Wilson, Public Health Director. 1235 Ramsey Street, Fayetteville co.cumberland.nc.us/health Cumberland County Department of Public Health For information and appointments call Woman's Health Clinic ( 910 ) 433-3709 January is The Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program and Wise Woman Services provide free cervical cancer screenings. Appointments are every 1 st and 3 rd Wednesday of the month, and patients must meet certain requirements. Call for more information. Cervical Health Awareness Month Congressman Richard Hudson Cordially invites you to attend our REAGAN DAY DINNER SATURDAY, JANUARY 28 TH , 2017 HOLIDAY INN • I-95• 1944 CEDAR CREEK RD. For more ticket or sponsor information: www.cumberlandconcgop.com E-mail: vote4mills@aol.com Phone: 910-308-2409 ALL PROCEEDS SUPPORT THE CUMBERLAND COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY & ITS CANDIDATES R E C E P T I O N : 6 P M | D I N N E R : 7 P M Special Guests include: & Other Local & Statewide Officials S p e c i a l T h a n k s t o U p & C o m i n g We e k l y Congressman Robert Pittenger $ 60 per person in advance, $ 75 at the door Tickets: The early January snow storm disrupted scheduled oral arguments before the North Carolina Supreme Court. Mario McNeill's lawyers were to ask that his convictions for the 2009 rape and murder of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis be thrown out. The cases set for review this month were carried over to mid- February. McNeill's hearing has not been reset. McNeill, 36, was convicted by a Cumberland County Superior Court jury in May 2013 and sentenced to death by the same jury. The little girl was reported missing from her Fayetteville home by her mother, Antoinette Davis. Davis sold Shaniya to McNeill to pay off a $200 debt. She was sentenced to serve at least 17 years in prison for second-degree murder, human trafficking of a minor and other charges. Volunteer searchers eventually found the child's body in a wooded area off N.C. Highway 87 near the Lee-Harnett County line. Searchers and their dogs had passed by the area without finding the girl's remains until McNeill's lawyers told police where to look. And that's the crux of his new attorney's appeal, reports the Associated Press. The lawyers contend his conviction was all but assured when McNeill's lawyers told authorities where to find Shaniya's body, the hope being that prosecutors would go easier on him. McNeill professed his innocence … insisting that he did not kill the child. At trial, he told judge Jim Ammons that he didn't want anyone to speak on his behalf during his sentencing. Saying he fully understood that he could be sentenced to death, McNeill said, "My goal was freedom. I lost my freedom. What does it matter after that?" He presented no defense during his 12-day trial. Ammons said "You understand you are completely and totally tying your lawyers' hands?" Defense attorney Terry Alford said McNeill instructed him not to participate in the sentencing hearing or offer any closing. District Attorney Billy West pressed the case without concessions and McNeill was convicted of first degree murder, kidnapping, rape, human trafficking of a minor, sexual servitude of a minor and taking indecent liberties with a child. Jurors took two days to determine his guilt, handing down the death sentence. The jury deliberated less than 40 minutes before deciding that McNeill should die for suffocating the 5-year-old. "I submit to you, without hesitation, that the only punishment appropriate in this case – for these crimes – is the death penalty," Assistant District Attorney Robby Hicks said in his closing argument. Under North Carolina law, a jury's unanimous decision is binding on the presiding judge. The Supreme Court could throw out McNeil's conviction on the grounds his initial legal assistance was ineffective and ruined his claim of innocence, McNeill's lawyers said. North Carolina hasn't executed any of the 150 convicted killers on death row because of various legal challenges. Condemned killers get automatic reviews of their cases by the state Supreme Court. The Death of Shaniya Davis by JEFF THOMPSON Mario McNeill