The mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis has posted bail and been released from jail, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Antoinette Davis, 25, was released Sunday after posting a $51,000 bail, said Debbie Tanna, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.

Davis is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution after her daughter's body was found in Lee County woods on Nov. 16, six days after she was reported missing from her home in Fayetteville.

Mario Andrette McNeil, 29, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child in Shaniya's death.

Surveillance video from a hotel in Sanford showed McNeil carrying the child into an elevator and leaving about an hour later.

Davis had been held at Central Prison in Raleigh, but Tanna said Cumberland County deputies were ordered to bring Davis back to Fayetteville and release her.

Her bond was posted by Accredited Surety and Casualty Co. Inc.

The local agent, Julius D. Robinson, declined to comment on Davis' bond.

Bondsmen require the defendant or the family to put up anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent of the bond in collateral, including cash and property.

Davis' lawyer, D.W. Bray, would not say what her family used for collateral.

Bail is designed to ensure someone who has been charged will appear in court, according to Bray. He said his client is presumed innocent.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bail cannot be used as punishment, he said.

That Davis posted bail is "standard practice," Bray said.

"This isn't unusual," he said.

Davis is scheduled to appear in District Court on April 15.

 

 

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday.

Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

Mario McNeill is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child in the warrant, which was issued after police said they collected hair and fibers, clothes, and a straw from his 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. He was initially charged only with kidnapping.

McNeill seemed nervous as he appeared in court Friday for a brief hearing on the latest charges

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.

Now Antoinette Davis has been relaeased on a $51,000 bond and awaiting an April 15th court date. She has never been charged with Murder, but willingly gave her daughter over to a monster fro a drug debt in sexual servitude.