State v. McNeill

Citation813 S.E.2d 797,371 N.C. 198
Decision Date08 June 2018
Docket NumberNo. 446A13,446A13
Parties STATE of North Carolina v. Mario Andrette MCNEILL
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Anne M. Middleton and Derrick C. Mertz, Special Deputy Attorneys General, for the State.

Glenn Gerding, Appellate Defender, and Andrew DeSimone, Benjamin Dowling-Sendor, and Daniel Shatz, Assistant Appellate Defenders, for defendant-appellant.

HUDSON, Justice.

Defendant Mario Andrette McNeill appeals his conviction and sentence of death for the first-degree murder of Shaniya Davis. Defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder based on malice, premeditation, and deliberation, and under the felony murder rule, with the underlying felonies being sex offense of a child and kidnapping. Defendant was also convicted of related charges of sexual offense of a child by an adult offender, taking indecent liberties with a child, first-degree kidnapping, human trafficking, and subjecting the victim to sexual servitude. We find no error in defendant's trial or sentencing, and we further determine that defendant's sentence of death is not disproportionate to his crimes.

Background

The evidence at trial tended to show that in September 2009, Shaniya Davis was five years old and, along with her mother, Antoinette Davis, and her seven-year-old brother, C.D., lived in the trailer of Antoinette's sister, Brenda Davis, located in Sleepy Hollow Trailer Park (Sleepy Hollow) in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Brenda had previously "been seeing" defendant, who also went by the nickname "Mano,"1 and he had given her the deposit to move into the Sleepy Hollow trailer. Because defendant spent time at the trailer, he knew Antoinette and had been in the presence of Shaniya and C.D. before, and he also knew how to get into the trailer, even when the door was locked. At the time of the events at issue, Brenda was "seeing" Jeroy Smith, the father of her children. Brenda, Jeroy, and their children stayed in the back bedroom, while Antoinette and her children stayed in the front room of the trailer. Defendant lived with April Autry, the mother of his eighteen-month-old daughter, on Washington Drive in Fayetteville.

On the evening of 9 November and continuing into the early morning hours of 10 November 2009, after ingesting cocaine and "a couple shots of liquor," defendant began "text[ing] all the females in [his] phone." He tried to text Brenda, but her phone was turned off. Another woman, Taisa McClain, who also lived in Sleepy Hollow, began exchanging text messages with defendant and agreed to invite him over; however, by the time defendant arrived at Sleepy Hollow at 2:52 a.m. on 10 November, Taisa had fallen asleep and did not answer defendant's texts. At 3:06 a.m., defendant texted "Goodnight" to Taisa and then at 3:07 a.m., defendant again attempted to text Brenda.

At around 5:30 a.m., Brenda woke up because she thought she heard the bedroom door open, and she mentioned this to Jeroy. Brenda and Jeroy went back to sleep but were reawakened at around 6:00 a.m. by Antoinette, who came into the room and asked if they had seen Shaniya. When they responded in the negative, Antoinette told them she was going outside to search for Shaniya. While Antoinette was outside, C.D. told Brenda and Jeroy that defendant had been there the previous night. Jeroy asked C.D. if he was sure about this, and C.D. responded, "yeah." Brenda texted and called defendant, but he did not answer his telephone. Jeroy then called April Autry, who told him that defendant was not with her.

Antoinette returned to the trailer and reported that she had knocked on doors in Sleepy Hollow but that no one had seen Shaniya. Brenda told Antoinette to call the police, but Antoinette was hesitant to do so. Brenda and Jeroy went outside and noticed that the stairs and railings of the trailer contained feces that had not been there the night before. There was also what appeared to be illegible yellow writing scribbled within the feces on a railing.

Shortly after 6:00 a.m. that same morning, defendant arrived at the Comfort Inn & Suites (Comfort Suites) in Sanford where he entered the hotel alone, provided identification, and checked into Room 201 under his own name. There was video footage of the transaction because cameras operated continually throughout the hotel.2 Defendant told the front desk clerk, Jacqueline Lee, that he was traveling with his daughter to take her to her mother in Virginia. Video footage from hotel security cameras showed that after checking in, defendant returned to his vehicle in the back of the parking lot at approximately 6:17 a.m, where he remained for several minutes, before coming back into the hotel carrying a child covered up with a blue blanket. Lee observed defendant carrying the child on the video feed and noticed the texture of her hair, which Lee recalled when she saw an Amber Alert that was issued for Shaniya. Additionally, Seth Chambers, who was staying at the hotel during a business trip, passed defendant in the hallway near Room 201 at 6:24 a.m. and observed defendant carrying a child.

At the hotel's morning shift change, Regina Bacani replaced Lee at the front desk. During the shift change, defendant came to the breakfast area alone, got a banana, some juice, and a muffin, and took them back to his room. Lee pointed defendant out to Bacani and told her about the recent check-in. Hotel cameras showed defendant walking toward the breakfast area at 6:36 a.m. and returning down the hall and into his room with food and drink in his hands.

Back at Sleepy Hollow, Antoinette called the police at 6:52 a.m. at the urging of Brenda. About ten minutes after Antoinette's telephone call, the police arrived, began searching for Shaniya with canines, and started interviewing people. Fayetteville Police Officer Elizabeth Culver observed a substance that was later determined to be feces on both railings of the front porch. The substance was smooth, like something had been poured on it. Antoinette Davis had a cooking pot in her hand when Officer Culver arrived, and someone said Antoinette had poured water on the railings, so Officer Culver asked her not to do that. In the trash can of unit 1119, police found a blanket that Antoinette Davis identified as hers and which Jeroy Smith recognized as having been in the living room of the trailer recently. The blanket was a thick child's comforter-type blanket, and it had feces on it. Jennifer Slish, a forensic technician for the Fayetteville Police Department at that time, took the blanket into evidence to be processed for fluids, fibers, and hairs.

Officer Culver spoke with Antoinette, Brenda, Jeroy, and C.D. at the scene. C.D. seemed very distracted and would look at his aunt before responding. C.D. said he remembered Shaniya coming to bed but did not remember her leaving the bedroom. At trial, C.D. ultimately testified that he had seen defendant at the trailer that morning. Because Antoinette and Brenda were consistently looking at their phones and texting, Officer Culver had difficulty getting them to focus on the questions being asked, so her Lieutenant agreed to take them downtown to be interviewed. Officer Culver and her partner, Daniel Suggs, went to the main office of the trailer park to view the security video so as to look for a child roaming around the trailer park or for vehicles coming into the area.

At approximately 7:34 a.m., the video cameras at the Comfort Suites showed defendant leaving Room 201 and going to the elevator with a child later identified as Shaniya. At 7:35 a.m., the video shows defendant exiting the side door of the hotel and walking down the sidewalk still carrying Shaniya. Matthew Argyle, the hotel's maintenance worker at the time, appeared on the video one minute later. Argyle later testified that he was outside the side door picking up cigarette butts and trash when he saw defendant come out with a five- or six-year-old female child on his shoulder. Defendant had her covered, and Argyle thought she was asleep. When Argyle said hello, defendant made eye contact with him before looking away without saying anything in response and continuing walking toward the parking lot. Argyle "noticed something was amiss," and he thus tried to observe defendant without making it obvious that he was doing so. Defendant put the child in the right rear passenger side of his car, got into the driver's seat, and began smoking a cigarette or cigar. Argyle continued to watch defendant while acting like he was doing busy work, because he just felt something was amiss. Defendant then drove to the pavilion at the front entrance of the hotel, extinguished his smoking material, and entered the hotel.

Defendant approached the front desk and asked Bacani for his security deposit, stating that he had to get back on the road to drive his daughter to Virginia to meet her mother. Security cameras show Bacani giving defendant the cash receipt to sign and returning the deposit. The housekeeper who later cleaned Room 201 brought Bacani one or two small, clear, open plastic packets with white residue that she had found in the room, which Bacani believed to be cocaine.

Meanwhile, Argyle watched defendant leave the hotel entrance, get back in his car, drive away, and turn left onto the main road. Argyle did not act on his feeling that something was wrong until the following day when hotel staff saw an Amber Alert and called law enforcement. The hotel security cameras show defendant leaving the hotel's front entrance and getting into his car at 7:40 a.m., after which the car turned left towards Highway 87.

Telephone records indicate that at approximately 7:49 a.m., defendant sent a text saying "Hey" to Brenda Davis, who was at the police station at this time and had texted "Hey" to defendant at 6:53 a.m. after learning from C.D. that defendant had been in the trailer the previous night. At approximately 8:22 a.m., cell phone tower pings showed defendant...

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