The allegedly poverty-stricken North Carolina woman who was accused of giving her five-year-old daughter to a man for sex late last year was released from jail on February 21 after posting a $51,000 bond.
The child, Shaniya Davis, was found dead on Nov. 16 on a rural road in Lee County, near Fayetteville, N.C.
Antoinette Davis, 25, had been held at Central State Prison in Raleigh, N.C. prior to her release. Her next court date is scheduled for April 15, and according to BlackAmericaWeb.com, following her arrest in November, Davis was charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse, prostitution and filing a false police report in connection with her daughter’s disappearance.
Investigators said they believed Davis—who is pregnant again—gave Shaniya to Mario McNeill, 29, to pay a drug debt. He was seen on a hotel surveillance camera with a girl matching the child’s description and has been charged with kidnapping, first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child.
Shaniya’s father, who is White, reportedly said his daughter was conceived after he and Davis engaged in a one-night stand.
He denied helping to get Davis out on bond and expressed anger over her release.
“I’m pretty much speechles,” Brad Lockhart was quoted as saying on the Louisiana-based “Black and Missing but Not Forgotten” Web site. “I’m angry at the way this whole thing has preceded. I am angry that she is out, angry I have to keep reliving this.”
